Remember he locked them out and brought in replacements while the NFL tried to negotiate with the refs union.
The NFL wanted better accountability, a "bench" to sit refs on if they struggle and bring refs up from to fill that void. Full time refs were discussed.
The problem is your lovely sports media made every bad call out to be the replecament refs faults and acted like the regular refs would never make those mistakes. The sheeple all listened to the talking heads and kicked and screamed and the media kept whipping up a frenzy until the NFL had to cave in.
I don't like Goodell but this isn't on him at all. The refs union wants NOTHING to do with accountability.
