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I suppose that's possible, Juulie. If it was deceptive, it was very well-done. The supervisor of officials is an emplyee of the league, not of the officials. And he said that the league doesn't particularly care who its officials are. The phrase "seeing-eye dog" was used in describing acceptable officials. So I don't think that he has an interest in keeping out new officials. Especially since they all get paid the same thing.
The officials in the midwest part of the country basically turned back their schedules en masse before last season. So the league caved in a bit and increased their game fees.
But here in the northeast, the feeling is that if the officials did that, the league would simply say "OK, we've got all of NYC and New Jersey to choose from for new officials".
So in order to have any clout, the northeast officials need the backing of the midwestern and southern (Florida) officials. That would require organizing a union, I think. That may happen in the next year or so, I don't know.
All that is a long-winded way of saying that I don't think the situation was embellished to influence the incoming applicants. Obviously, I could be wrong, but I got the feeling that it was just an honest (and frustrated) appraisal by both the officials and the league's representative.
Chuck
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