Seeing the front page post about several of the most vehemently anti-union and anti-regulation conservatives wishing for the end of the NFL lockout of the referees and the return of them to the game, I think that this is MORE than an opportunity to highlight the ongoing attempt to eliminate other unions like Teacher's Unions. It is also the PERFECT metaphor to explain how a well-maintained, experienced and, above all, truly neutral regulatory body is ESSENTIAL to the functioning of the game.
With a game like football (or any sport really) the entirety of the game is encapsulated in space (a stadium) and time (the period of play). It's easy to see how, when you remove such a seemingly small piece as the referees and replace them with compromised or inferior copies, the whole game is thrown out of whack. In fact, It's much worse than the player's strike. Why? because even when the players are replaced, the structure of the game, the rules are still evenly and effectively enforced for all. With substandard players good and bad plays still matter (you just don't GET many good plays), but without effective refereeing, they don't. All the effort and skill one has trained for years is pointless when a poorly trained ref blows the call.
And it doesn't just affect the players on the field. It affects the coaches, the fans, even the owners themselves as the integrity of the sport is damaged and outcomes become no longer dependent upon skill or the tides of fortune, but the whimsical failures of a person out of his depth. Right now, we are just seeing the teams frustration with the poor refereeing. They are still TRYING to play as if there are effective refs on the field (there just aren't). But in any game where winning is paramount, and where some amount of "working the refs" has always existed, if this continues long enough, the behavior of the teams will change. The system will adapt. And it will adapt by taking advantage of incompetence in its officiating.
Imagine, if you will, a football game that looks very similar to a WWF wrestling match from the 80's, but in this case the ridiculous buffoonery of the officials (unable to see the most obvious 'foreign objects' or 'illegal' techniques being used) is not scripted, is not part of the act, but is very real and being exploited by teams who, in the end, are both willing to do so to win, but also almost forced to do so because of the fact that they can't rely on the officiating to ensure a fair outcome: they take matters into their own hands. But where does this behavior lead? It's pretty obvious to no good end.
This situation is almost perfectly analogous to the Republican fetish for gutting our countries regulatory agencies. It destroys the even playing field and just about forces even the most high minded of players to descend into the dirt simply to compete with those corporations or groups that wanted to cheat in the first place.
And look what happens? Everyone suffers. The players, the coaches, the refs, the fans, even the very game itself.