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And it is not illegal to suggest that if you do something it could hurt your career.
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No, its not illegal. But that something that is done should be something society values as wrong -- a crime, moral wrong, etc. Being a replacement official, even if you're in the union, doesn't come close to rising to that level. As I've said from the start of this thing: behave in an unprofessional way at your own risk. It is unprofessional to treat people poorly simply due to the fact that they made decisions that were not in YOUR best interest. It is unprofessional to use your job in leadership or in an authority position in an organization (D-1 conference, in this case) to retaliate against those who made decisions that, again, were not in YOUR best interest.
Look -- I WANT the NFL officials to get as much salary and benefits as possible. The NFL makes a lot of money and the officials play a significant role in that. And I think virtually all replacement officials would agree that the game would be better officiated with the regular officials than it is with what amounts to as a crew of NFL rookies.
However, the NFL has made a firm offer that the union has refused. That's fine -- negotiations can be a *****. But unless the NFLPR can convince the players to not play (and they can't) the games are going to go on and they must be officiated. Its the officials in the NFLPR that have chosen not to accept (and possibly for good reason) the NFL's offer, so others will be needed to fill their place. I'm sorry, but they've had their chance and can't complain. Blackballing, ostracizing, threats, etc. are all examples of unprofessional behavior, and you can't separate professionalism in your life. In other words, you can't be unprofessional in one part of your life and be a professional on the football field. It doesn't work like that.