If only officials in other sports could take responsibility for their actions like Hochuli. Takes a man to admit you made a mistake. Still waiting for an apology over the no-call on Finley's foot being out of bounds or the phantom foul on AK this season. How bout an apology from Selig for making the Astros play 2 in Milwaukee this weekend. http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/sh...-frowny-after-the-disaster-in-?urn=nfl,108018
Having been without power so long, this is the first I've heard of this, but I agree, this sounds like a respectable ref manning up. The problem a lot of fans, myself included, have with refereeing isn't that it can be so bad at times, but that is is so bad and nobody mans up. They usually throw out excuses - "hardest sport to referee", "according to rule 12.a.x.%$ the play was blah", etc. - and you never hear from the ref in question. Referee's are allowed to make mistakes. That's how instant replay came into being - to fix certain mistakes. Need to take instant replay a step further, though. Perhaps, as far as football is concerned - get rid of the ability for referee's to cal a play dead. I never understood why plays are called dead. You can never go back and change a play after it's been called dead because you don't know what would have happened, but if you let the play go on, you can always go back and change the call afterward.
if SD is on the outside looking in for the playoffs, or for home field, you're going to have a lot of people pointing to this call. Don't let it get you down, Ed. Just go pump those guns up and get back on the field this weekend.
He did screw up, and he is one of my favorite refs. That being said, the NFL needs to have some leeway on the field for obvoius blown calls like this one. DD
I deal with his law firm quite a bit and always want to make a crack to the person about him. He's awesome and it's great to see him take responsibility for his mistake.
I think they should make a new rule that a referee cannot review a call that they made themselves. Conflict of interest.
Hochuli always seemed like a stand out individual. Mistakes happen and he seems genuine in his apology. As for the Chargers they should be fine.... Playoffs and championships are not made in the first 2 games of the season.
I'm a high school football official in CA and every official has had the dreaded "inadvertant whistle" several times in their career. I remember when I did it in a game where I screwed a team that was winning by 30 pts in a high school game. I felt like absolute crap for about week for doing something so stupid. I can only imagine what he feels like doing that on the biggest stage 100% changing the result of the game. I can certainly respect him for admitting his mistake and not making excuses and I understand mistakes happen. I'm not sure everyone else here in San Diego feels the same. I'm more upset about the replay equipment mysteriously "malfunctioning" in Denver on a critical review that should have given the Chargers the ball back on an earlier missed call.
