Ed Hochuli responds

[Rack]

Full time officials are desperately needed.

Having games decided by people who only do what they do "some of the time" is ridiculous.

Billions upon billions of dollars are spent in the NFL and they still have part-timers influencing games.

I agree, but technically they do make enough money for this to be their "Full time job". Don't they make like 200K a year or something?


If they don't, they should cuz the league can afford it.



ALso, they need to quit making changes to rules every year or at least only 1 rule a year. I think all the rules changes is hurting officiating more than anything.

 

[Nexx]

question, if Ed would have just ignored the fact that he blew the whistle and gave the ball to the Chargers, would he be in more trouble with the league than he is now?

 

[dallasfaniac]

Now is the time to get browny points for future Hochuli reffed Cowboy's games.

 

[Rack]

question, if Ed would have just ignored the fact that he blew the whistle and gave the ball to the Chargers, would he be in more trouble with the league than he is now?

Not sure.


I bet the league makes a change to that rule next season. Something about "If a whistle is blown inadvertently after a fumble, the ball will go to whoever is closest to it at the time the whistle was blown" or something like that. I don't like that they add/remove/change rules every year but I'd actually agree with this one.

That was a HUGE screw up by Hochaloogy. Cost the Chargers a division game and being that there's only 6 of them, it could cost the chargers down the road too.

 

[Danny White]

Yes, he did. Anyone with half a brain and at least 1 working eyeball could see that.




And the Chargers had scored 38 points, what's your point?


There's no way to say it didn't cost the charger the game. It's real simple, if he doesn't screw up the call, the chargers win. End of story.

I'm stunned that anyone is bothering to defend this.

He absolutely, positively, cost them that game.

Yes, if the Chargers would have stopped them on any of the ensuing three plays, they still could have won, but that doesn't change the fact that if the call was correct, THE GAME WAS OVER!

It's similar to that Oregon/Oklahoma game a few years back. If the refs make the correct call, the ballgame is over. The bad call essentially changes the outcome.

If this had happened to the Cowboys, everyone here would be having a raging conniption.

 

[Nightman]

Full time officials are desperately needed.

Having games decided by people who only do what they do "some of the time" is ridiculous.

Billions upon billions of dollars are spent in the NFL and they still have part-timers influencing games.

What would they do the other 6 1/2 days a week. They already know the rules, they just sometimes make a bad call. My problem is with the NFL. They have complicated too many simple things. Get rid of instant replay and just rely on the 7 guys on the field to make the calls. Instant replay hasn't eliminated the mistakes and just delays the game. I call it "lawyer" ball.

 

[Deep_South]

The NFL could save us all a lot of grief by making these plays reviewable. It is just crazy to acknowledge the call was blown and do nothing about it, especially when it involves giving one team a touchdown instead of giving the other team the ball.

 

[Rack]

I'm stunned that anyone is bothering to defend this.

He absolutely, positively, cost them that game.

Yes, if the Chargers would have stopped them on any of the ensuing three plays, they still could have won, but that doesn't change the fact that if the call was correct, THE GAME WAS OVER!

It's similar to that Oregon/Oklahoma game a few years back. If the refs make the correct call, the ballgame is over. The bad call essentially changes the outcome.

If this had happened to the Cowboys, everyone here would be having a raging conniption.

 

[Kilyin]

The Chargers got screwed bigtime. That wasn't the only blown call. There was also a catch by Chambers where he didn't fumble, and it was ruled as a fumble and the ball went to Denver. Even though it was blatantly obvious that it wasn't a fumble and they made the wrong call, they wouldn't overturn it because the replay computer wasn't working... (ironically, they had no problem showing the replay of the incident over and over on television for everyone to see).

If I was into conspiracy theories I'd say that game was one big screw job.

 

[WoodysGirl]

Has a ref ever been suspended for a game or two?

Yes, they've been suspended or downgraded from big games. Not sure about fines, tho.

Full time officials are desperately needed.

Having games decided by people who only do what they do "some of the time" is ridiculous.

Billions upon billions of dollars are spent in the NFL and they still have part-timers influencing games.

I can't imagine what officials would do in the offseason anymore than they already do.

I'm sure they already go to a ton of football camps and training clinics. Outside of that, what would they do to justify being full-time officials?

I'm stunned that anyone is bothering to defend this.

He absolutely, positively, cost them that game.

Yes, if the Chargers would have stopped them on any of the ensuing three plays, they still could have won, but that doesn't change the fact that if the call was correct, THE GAME WAS OVER!

It's similar to that Oregon/Oklahoma game a few years back. If the refs make the correct call, the ballgame is over. The bad call essentially changes the outcome.

If this had happened to the Cowboys, everyone here would be having a raging conniption.

I don't see anybody defending the call itself. It was a piss-poor call. And you're right if it'd happened to the 'boys, of course we'd be mad. Shoot we're mad over that weak PI call against Henry.

However, there are 60 mins in a game and it shouldn't have come down to the final secs of the game. They'd given up 31 points to that point. Don't know that you can put that on the refs too.

 

[gambit187]

This really sucks because on one hand he is my favorite ref, I love making fun of his guns out of admiration. I think he is a good official and runs a good crew. Then again u hate to see a team lose because of this..........the messed up part is this type of stuff all ways happens to NORV......dude cannt get a break.

 

[Woods]

I read that on Yahoo and sent him an e-mail of support.

I hope you mentioned that you're a Cowboys fan! We need a break.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

I didn't know you could get his email address on Yahoo! I'm gonna send him one today about his workout routine.

 

[Kilyin]

However, there are 60 mins in a game and it shouldn't have come down to the final secs of the game.

Games are decided in the final minutes/seconds quite a bit in the NFL. I don't buy that line of thinking at all. It's nice that he apologized but I don't know know why any ref would ever have blown that play dead. Just plain stupid.

 

[Danny White]

However, there are 60 mins in a game and it shouldn't have come down to the final secs of the game. They'd given up 31 points to that point. Don't know that you can put that on the refs too.

What would you say if on Monday night's game, they decided to give the Eagles one more snap after we held them on 4th down?

Sure, the game was over and they turned the ball over on downs, but let's say the refs decided to give them one more shot?

If they scored on that extra down, would you say, "hey it's our fault for letting the score be so close there at the end."

No one in their right mind would say that. We would (rightly) say that "we had the game won and the refs gave it to them."

That is EXACTLY what happened here.

 

[sacase]

People make mistakes. This mistake is Ed's biggest. I think the NFL has put such a premium on player safety that they are encouraging officials to stop plays quickly so that no one gets hurt. I think that Ed, mistakenly blew the play dead for player safety but soon as he blew the whistle he realized the ball went backwards and should have been live. Downgrade him, but don't cruify him. He is one of the better ones.

 

[AmishCowboy]

People make mistakes. This mistake is Ed's biggest. I think the NFL has put such a premium on player safety that they are encouraging officials to stop plays quickly so that no one gets hurt. I think that Ed, mistakenly blew the play dead for player safety but soon as he blew the whistle he realized the ball went backwards and should have been live. Downgrade him, but don't cruify him. He is one of the better ones.

I agree with everything you said along with they need to make PI reviewable.

 

[WV Cowboy]

What would you say if on Monday night's game, they decided to give the Eagles one more snap after we held them on 4th down?

Sure, the game was over and they turned the ball over on downs, but let's say the refs decided to give them one more shot?

If they scored on that extra down, would you say, "hey it's our fault for letting the score be so close there at the end."

No one in their right mind would say that. We would (rightly) say that "we had the game won and the refs gave it to them."

That is EXACTLY what happened here.

Even if they would have given them one more down, we would have sacked McNabb or he would have thrown it short at someones feet.

 

[Rack]

However, there are 60 mins in a game and it shouldn't have come down to the final secs of the game. They'd given up 31 points to that point. Don't know that you can put that on the refs too.

Sorry but that's just not right. You're basically saying "Win by a lot or it's your fault if a ref screws up". That's just BS.


Especially since the bad call occured with less than a minute left in the game.

Not to mention, as a previous poster mentioned, the Chargers also got screwed earlier in the game on a Chambers fumble that wasn't a chambers fumble.


People that say "refs don't decide games" are clueless. As long as there are refs ON THE FIELD, then yes, they have the ability to change the outcome of a game. Hochaloogy did it on sunday.

 

[WoodysGirl]

Games are decided in the final minutes/seconds quite a bit in the NFL. I don't buy that line of thinking at all. It's nice that he apologized but I don't know know why any ref would ever have blown that play dead. Just plain stupid.

I agree many games are decided in the final seconds, but giving up 31 points at that point leads me to believe they were having trouble stopping them anyway. That play was critical, but if they'd stopped them any of the other times they scored, they wouldn't have been in that position to begin with.

What would you say if on Monday night's game, they decided to give the Eagles one more snap after we held them on 4th down?

Sure, the game was over and they turned the ball over on downs, but let's say the refs decided to give them one more shot?

If they scored on that extra down, would you say, "hey it's our fault for letting the score be so close there at the end."

No one in their right mind would say that. We would (rightly) say that "we had the game won and the refs gave it to them."

That is EXACTLY what happened here.

Again who's arguing that it WASN'T a bad call? It was a bad call. Pure and simple. No argument to be had there.

Point still remains is you keep 'em out of the end zone before that point and then that bad call might not have had such an impact on the game.