Referee Ed Hochuli Will Be ‘Downgraded’

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

I haven’t posted anything about NFL referee Ed Hochuli’s crucial blown call in the Denver/San Diego game two days ago. But I’m about to. Just in case you don’t already know, I’ll set the stage. It’s the fourth quarter with the Broncos driving deep in Chargers territory trailing by seven points. Ok, the stage has been set. I’ll start speaking in the past tense now.

Denver had a second-and-goal at the one-yard line. Quarterback Jay Cutler rolled to his right looking for a receiver, but as he let the ball go, it slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground. The Chargers recovered the ball in bounds, but the refs indicated the whistle had already blown — incomplete pass. Since there were less than two minutes remaining in the game, the replay challenge came from upstairs, and the refs took a look at the play. As it turned out, it was a fumble. The ball had slipped out of Jay’s hand before his arm came forward. So, how did the ball move back from the one to the 10 and the Broncos maintain possession? Ed explained the call after the game was over:

“The ruling on the field was an incomplete pass. We went to replay — it should have been ruled a fumble. By rule, on that particular play where there’s a pass/fumble, the rules do not permit you to give the ball to the other team. All we can do to fix it is put the ball at the spot that it hit the ground, which is why we moved it back to the 10-yard line. The down counts and it becomes third down.”

So is it the end of the world that Ed made a mistake? Well, sort of. It cost the Chargers the game. Denver went on to score and then completed the gutsy two-pointer for a 39-38 win. But these things are going to happen. NFL officials are not perfect even though they’re expected to be. Besides, Ed will be “punished” for his mistake. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said:

“Officials are held accountable for their calls. They are graded on every play of every game. Ed has been an outstanding official for many years, but he will be marked down for this call. Under our evaluation system, an official’s grades impact his status for potentially working the playoffs and ultimately whether or not he is retained.”

Ed has become a sort of signature referee in the NFL with his bulging biceps. He’s one of the more high-profile refs, that’s for sure. My take is that he has been, as Greg Aiello said, an outstanding official through the years. I guess Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would disagree, though. He said that Ed is a “highly criticized official in the NFL.” I wonder what Ed did to poor Jerry. So, there are some differing opinions on whether Ed Hochuli is a good referee or not. All I know is that being an NFL official is a tremendously difficult job and there is no margin for error.

My only experience in this field is reffing a church league basketball game and I’ll never do that again. It was brutal. I can’t even imagine the pressure NFL officials feel. And I think, for the most part, they do a pretty good job. I’m sure this play and this situation will be reviewed in the offseason by the league’s competition committee.

Sources: AOL Sports, DenverBroncos.com, Photo: Newscom