Ed Hochuli
 

I know it's football but I can't help but feel sorry for this guy (an official is an official to me). A great ref and now he will go down in the history books as being the one who blew the obvious fumble call. I can't believe there wasn't something in place to cover this already instead of placing the ball dead where the whistle blew. Everyone knew it was Raider's ball! He was sure man enough to admit to the country he blew it, a class act if you ask me. Wonder how much that will cost him in the pocket book. Any bets on if he will do the Super Bowl this year??

I wonder how long it will take for someone to tell me "that was a Hoculi call blue!" I have a game at 5 PM so probably won't take long :D

I'm with ya.....

If he had given the ball to the Raiders, all hell would certainly have broke loose considering the game was between the Chargers and the Broncos. :)

The football board has some good stuff on this topic...about what you would expect from other officials. Ed blew the call, admitted it, and administered the play correctly. What really magnified it was the point of the game. If it had happened in the middle of the first quarter, it probably wouldn't be news.

For Turner (SD Head Coach) to blame the loss on Hochuli shows an absolute lack of class on his part. What a jerk....

It just proves that even the best of the best officials screw it up once in awhile. I would still say he is one of the top officials in the NFL.

Wrong game. Actually Chargers ball. Also being a football official it happens, and I am not sure what the NFL rule is but it seems similar to the high school rule for an Inadvertent Whistle.

Ed is a great official and unfortunately by rule this could not be fixed via replay. Since they have the technology for instant replay, then probably the Inadvertent Whistle rule needs to be changed.

The IW rule gives the offense the result of the play, or a re do from the point of interruption (the whistle being blown to early) regardless of fumble recoveries, interceptions, etc... The only thing that can avoid an IW is if there is an accepted penalty that happened before the IW. The penalty supersedes the IW.

OOPS :D

Big deal, he screwed up one call out of how many? How many play calls has that POS, sad excuse for a head coach, Norv Turner made?

What a sorry excuse for a group of professionals. If ANY team at ANY level of ANY team sport believes a single call "lost" them the game, they didn't play well enough to deserve the win.

Hochuli didn't allow the Broncos to throw two consecutive scoring passes to the same receiver.

Here is an article on the game from the Chargers official web site.

Nothing really about the game. It's all about how the game was stolen from them.

"the Chargers defense came on the field and could do little to stop Denver.."

I think that this sums up the real issue. Football is nothing but a bunch of whiners anyway. I still don't understand the appeal of the game. :rolleyes:

Gesundheit

I agree Ed is one of the best, but everyone makes mistakes....or IMO it wasn't a mistake when he originally made it....He did what we are all trained to do call what you saw. From his angle kind of behind the player he saw the hand coming forward and ball spit out.....looked like an incomplete pass from his angle so he called it that. Now 50 cameras and a replay later he saw what everyone else (from the side to front of the QB) saw and probably cussed himself for 45 of the 90 second review period.

I also agree, how many stupid calls did the coaching staff make, and two throws to same guy back to back....ya I'd blame Ed too! Once again the 3rd team on the field had the fewest errors of the game!!

Yes, but I still bet Ed had trouble sleeping Sunday night. It takes a while to get over kicking a call. Especially when it happens near the end of the game and affects the outcome .

I have two questions on the whole thing. 1. On a play where a whistle is blown, there can't be a reversal. So why review it at all? 2. Since on the field it was ruled an incomplete pass, whistle blown, no reversal of call can be made. Why wasn't the ball spotted at the original line of scrimmage? It was moved back. I don't know that many variables of rules of football, but was just wondering. Dave

Don't work football, but I would think...

The review cannot determine possession in this case. It can determine whether it was an incomplete pass or fumble. An incomplete pass returns to the line of scrimmage, a fumble is the location of the ball at the time the whistle is blown.

From what I read on the football forum, the end result was that the incomplete pass ruling on the field was changed to a fumble. The whistle for an incomplete pass as called on the field then became an inadvertant whistle during a fumble, meaning possession back to the offense at the location of the ball when the whistle blew.

And football players really are the worst losers. Remember the tantrums the Ravens threw at the end of their Monday Night game against the Pats last year?

No worse than other sports. 2 examples -
What about the Cuban martial artist at the olympics?
What about some of the soccer morons in South America?