Ed Hochuli's Mistake Will Unfairly Haunt Him

Last Sunday afternoon in San Diego, Ed Hochuli made a mistake.

When Denver Broncos' QB Jay Cutler scrambled to his right and attempted to throw into the endzone, the ball slipped out of his hand.

After looking at replays, it was clearly a fumble; however, Hochuli couldn't overturn the call because he blew his whistle and stopped the play.

Did he know he made a mistake? Yes. Did he admit the mistake? Yes. Was Charger Coach Norv Turner happy? Of course not.

Now look, if I was a Charger fan, I would be upset too, but let's look into this further.

In a game as wonderful as that was, it would have been an absolute shame for that game to end on that play. Cutler played lights out and shredded the Chargers' defense all day. 

But guess what Charger fans? Your team still had two more downs, plus a two point conversion, to win that game.

Ed Hochuli did NOT decide that game. Your defense did. If you couldn't legitimately stop Jay Cutler then you didn't deserve to win.

Hochuli was later "graded down" by head NFL officials. This could really come back to haunt Hochuli and the NFL.

Hochuli is unquestionably one of the best NFL referees we have. If grading down means he doesn't get to work a playoff or Super Bowl game, that is a shame. I'd much rather see Ed Hochuli as my head referee than some of the other refs we have in this game.

One bad play, which when you look back at it wasn't that bad, shouldn't cost him that spot in the playoffs. I know every single one of you has went to your job and made ONE mistake, maybe even one BIG mistake.

But one mistake should never decide something important like this.

Let's go back to that play. Hochuli is lined up behind Cutler on the play. This play happens extremely fast and most likely from that angle, it was very tough for Hochuli to see what happened. He saw what he saw and went with his gut, which was an incomplete pass.

How is that such an outrageous call? He made a decision.

It's the rule that makes this such a mistake. If Hochuli could have overturned the decision, he would have, but NFL rules state the play is dead when the whistle blows, so every player has an equal right at getting the football.

But that rule should be abolished. Make it possible for refs to overturn that call. This way, Hochuli wouldn't be getting the kind of negative press he really doesn't deserve.

He is a top official and not seeing him in the playoffs because of this just wouldn't be right.