NFL Referee Ed Hochuli Most-Trending Twitter Topic of Giants-49ers Game

For the second time this NFL postseason, America was treated to a few extra minutes of free football, as the New York Giants defeated the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in overtime.

Throughout the contest, fans were also treated to the eloquent discourses of NFL referee Ed Hochuli, perhaps the league's most recognizable white hat—known as well for his physique as he is for his mastery of the rules book and attention to detail, a trait especially evident during his comprehensive penalty explanations.

The second of two football games played Sunday, it is no surprise fans took to Twitter to cheer, jeer and comment on the Giants vs. 49ers game.

With Giants quarterback Eli Manning and receiver Victor Cruz lighting up the scoreboard, along with San Francisco's Vernon Davis' two touchdown receptions, it therefore came as quite a surprise that "Ed Hochuli" was the No. 1 worldwide trending topic related to the NFC Championship Game, save for the promoted #NFL hash tag.

In trending "Ed Hochuli" for over three continuous hours on Sunday evening, some commented on Hochuli's impressive physical appearance:

Others, such as ABC's Josh Elliott, chose to address Hochuli's superior oratory skills—or at least his tendency to make extensive use of a football stadium's public address system:

Putting it all together, some recognized the true cohesive effect Ed Hochuli seems to have amongst ardent football fans, ultimately admitting that Hochuli on his own, without a football game in the background, could easily draw Super Bowl-esque ratings.

In the end, it was time to give thanks for an evening of Hochuli-branded entertainment.

For 49ers fans, Hochuli's performance was a wonderful parting gift, a running twitter joke

 to dull the pain of Kyle Williams' game-losing fumble in overtime.

Up next—after the Super Bowl—is baseball season and Phil Coke's Brain is already tweeting for a rules explanation in that sport.

Maybe it's finally time to put a microphone on MLB umpire Joe West.

Gil Imber is Bleacher Report's Rules Featured Columnist and owner of Close Call Sports, a website dedicated to the objective and fair analysis of close or controversial calls in sports.