Anyone whom follows professional football, mainly the USA variety as provided by the National Football League, is well aware of the San Diego Charger/Denver Bronco game on Sunday September 14th. With less than 2 minutes to go in the game, the San Diego Chargers were leading 38–31 but Denver was driving and down inside the San Diego 10 yard line. Denver QB Jay Cutler takes the snap, drops back and loses the football as he was cocking his arm back to pass. A clear fumble which replay confirmed, the ball dropped to the ground on the 10 yard line, a San Diego defender picked up the ball but the play was whistled dead. Referee Ed Hochuli had inadvertently blown the play dead, NFL rules prevented him from awarding possession of the ball to San Diego, even with instant replay confirming it to be a fumble. The error here was blowing the whistle too quickly, but on the other hand the NFL has emphasised protecting players from injury, which is why I believe Ed Hochuli blew the play dead so quickly.
The best Ed Hochuli could do is spot the ball on the spot it hit the ground, the down counted but Denver maintained possession.
Anyway, Denver went onto score a touchdown and they went for a two-point conversion that allowed them to win the game by a final score of 39–38.
Obviously had Ed Hochuli not blown the whistle or had NFL rules not been structured to have the whistle be the end all be all, San Diego would have been awarded the ball and placed themselves in a position to have protected their lead by running the clock out.
Either way, NFL Ed Hochuli has been vilified by the sports media and San Diego fans for making a call that supposedly cost San Diego a victory.
NFL referee’s and crews are not full-time positions, they are part-time jobs, albeit probably well paid part time jobs. These guys usually have something else going on, in Ed Hochuli’s case, he is a Major partner in a law firm.
This man admitted his mistake, was powerless to undo it at the time it was made, (see NFL rules) and has fielded vicious hate mail from San Diego Charger fans, and he has responded to them! This man has both honesty and character, imagine that, the horrors, oh the horrors!!!
NFL games are typically officiated by a 7–man crew, trying to keep up with the action of 22 hulking players running all over the field on any given play, I guess it doesn’t hurt to mention that these 7 men are human??
Those of you whom have watched NFL games for any length of time to understand the game, have seen bad calls made by referee;s, missed calls and in some cases it has changed the tempo of the game, even cost a team a victory or made a loss much worse? While it is true the call Ed Hochuli made in the game in question, allowed Denver to win, the call by itself is not the only factor to that Denver victory. After all, far more point production by the San Diego offence or far more point prevention by the San Diego defence, could have rendered this call a very moot point. Lets not forget that the San Diego defence could have stopped Denver from getting the touchdown or the 2–point conversion?
Ed Hochuli is one of the best NFL referee’s I have seen, since Jerry Markbreit, I do not find it fair that he is vilified for a mistake he could not undo, there is a reason why he and his crew have officiated Two Super Bowls, been named as an alternate for 3 others and officiated 5 conference championships.
Anyone can go out and see for themselves his record as a NFL referee, it speaks for itself.
I like him as a NFL referee because he thoroughly explains a call, especially the difficult ones involving instant replay or multiple fouls. I don’t mean to set him up higher than any other NFL referee, they all have difficult jobs to do for every game they officiate in front of tens of thousands of live fans, 106 players and millions of TV viewers. Of course every call against ones own team is always the incorrect call, right?
Referee’s don’t write the rule books, they only enforce what’s in it and like the players and coaches, are confined to what is in them. You want to second guess a game official, become one!
Ed Hochuli doesn’t deserve the vilification he has received, instead these people should be pressing the NFL, the owners and the competition committee to write rules that make sense.
Keep up the good work Ed!!
p.s. This site is maintained by his son and contains alot of info regarding him: http://www.nfl85.com