Poor Ed Hochuli

Poor Ed Hochuli.


The muscle bound football referee (part time) and trial lawyer (full time) has had a tough week. During last Sunday's game between the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers Ed Hochuli made a mistake. Jay Cutler (the Bronco's quarterback) fumbled the ball in the waning seconds of the 4th quarter and Ed Hochuli was out of position. Instead of calling the fumble, he blew his whistle. In the NFL a blown whistle means a dead ball, which in turn means a play can't be reviewed. Denver went on to score and win the game.


Most people today do not accept responsibility for their actions. Society is packed with finger pointers and excuse makers. But not Ed Hochuli - he immediately went over to the Chargers coach and apologized for missing the call. This week he (and his law firm) received hundreds of death threats and hate emails. And poor Ed Hochuli actually took the time to answer most of them personally. What Ed Hochuli had to say basically was "Officials strive for perfection - I failed miserably". He owned up to it - he admitted his failure - in the world today not only is that rare but it is damn admirable. It got me to thinking, though, about the really bad calls that judges, referees, umpires and officials have made during the time I have been a sports fan and I thought I would list the three most egregious ones here.


3. The1988 Seoul Summer Olympics' middleweight boxing final between American Roy Jones Jr. (voted "Fighter of the Decade" for the 1990's by the Boxing Writers Association) and home town boy Park Si Hun. Judging the contest were the three stooges of boxing judges; Bob Kasule of Uganda, Alberto Duran of Uruguay and Hiouad Larbi of Morocco. These three pinheads gave Park Si Hun the Gold Medal victory in front of his home crowd even though Roy Jones, Jr. beat him like a rented mule. He landed 54 more punches (Olympic boxing matches are only 3 rounds) and if there had been a 4th round he would have knocked out Hun - but the judges still awarded Hun a 3-2 decision.


2. During the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz three referees (Dick Bavetta, Dan Crawford, Hue Hollins) missed one of the easiest calls in the history of basketball. The bulls were down by one point. The game was being played in Utah and there was less than 10 seconds remaining. Michael Jordan (in front of millions of fans across the world) pushed off defender Bryon Russell’s thigh. It was one of the most flagrant offensive fouls ever committed. Russell fell to the ground and Jordan made one of the most famous 20-foot jump shots of his career. A play that is still shown to this day in Gatorade commercials (not the foul, just the jump shot).


1. And finally the worst call ever made was during the 1998 NFC Wild Card game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers. To 49er fans this game was decided by a play that became known as "The Catch II" and to Packer fans this became known as the catch that should never have happened. Down by four points, the 49ers moved into Packer territory with less than one minute remaining. On a second-down play, Jerry Rice made a reception on a short crossing route and fumbled. Replays showed that the ball had slipped from Rice’s grasp before either of his knees had made contact with the ground, but the official ruled that Rice was down prior to losing control of the ball. With a few seconds remaining the 49ers completed the comeback as quarterback Steve Young picked out Terrell Owens between five Packer defenders on a miraculous 25-yard touchdown with three seconds left. The Packers were trying to go to an NFL record third straight Super Bowl - and the referees stole it from them.