NFL and NCAA Referees

If not for the mess in week one, this probably wouldn’t even be a story.  Unfortunately, it is.

Early in the first quarter of the Falcons-Panthers game today, referee Ed Hochuli flagged Julius Peppers for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Falcons’ QB Matt Ryan.  The play had resulted in an interception and a touchdown for the Panthers, but it was called back due to the penalty.  Should it have been called?

I watched the game live, and thought it was the right call.  It certainly appeared to be helmet-to-helmet, although it wasn’t very hard and it didn’t seem to be intentional.  I really think this was a call that could go either way.  Sadly for Hochuli, the call had a very direct impact on the game, taking seven points away from the Panthers.  Like his call a few weeks ago, he threw the flag before the “big play” happened, so he had no way of knowing how important the call would be.

If I can find a video or screencap of the hit, I’ll post it here.  Please let me know if you find one.

Just days after Saints’ coach Sean Payton was fined $15,000 for ripping the officials, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been fined $25,000 for a similar offense.

Jones had made comments about Ed Hochuli’s famous week one mistake in the Broncos-Chargers game.  Jones admits he was out of line, saying that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is “doing his job”.

Jones was fined more than Payton because owners are held to a higher standard.  Chargers coach Norv Turner was not fined for referring to the blown call as “unacceptable”, since he limited himself to that single word and referred all other questions about the matter to the league office.

It seems that Ed Hochuli may be considering taking a week off, based on a small change on his “official” website.

As of yesterday, the site proudly proclaimed that Ed would be working the Browns-Ravens game this Sunday.  Today, that message changed to:

Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 21st - Check back Sunday Morning

I’ll admit — this might not mean anything.  Still, I find it quite odd that they’d take down the game listing at this point in time.

Mike Pereira, the NFL’s supervisor of officials, has already come out and encouraged Ed to get back out there.  Between that, Ed’s apology, no suspension from the league, and the listing on his site, I assumed he was good go to.  Maybe not.

Anyone have any good information about this?  If so, please leave it in the comments below.

The NFL’s supervisor of officials, Mike Pereira, says that he has spoken to Ed Hochuli a few times over the past week and that Hochuli still feels devastated about what happened.  According to Pereira:

“He is a consummate professional who’s refereed in this league for 17 years and he hates to make any mistake. So when you add a mistake of this magnitude, at this particular junction of the game, it’s been really hard on him. We’ve talked probably seven or eight times since that game, and my whole goal is to try to get him back to get on the horse and work again this weekend. He’s too good of a guy, too good of an official to keep off the field over this critical mistake he made. I think he’ll be all right, but he’s really been affected over this mistake he made.”

If Pereira is right and Hochuli gets right back into it, he’s scheduled to ref the Browns-Ravens game at 4:15EST.

Referee Ed Hochuli has issued a brief statement apologizing for the blown call in last week’s Chargers-Broncos game.  His statement:

“I’m getting hundreds of e-mails — hate mail — but I’m responding to it all.  People deserve a response. You can rest assured that nothing anyone can say can make me feel worse than I already feel about my mistake on the fumble play. You have no idea … Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection — I failed miserably. Although it does no good to say it, I am very, very sorry.”

At this point, I’m not sure what else can be done.  He’s apologized and the league will look into the “inadvertent whistle” rule, so hopefully this story can start to go to rest.

You can bet his next game will be scrutinized closely, though.

The NFL has decided to give Ed Hochuli some “marked down” grades for his bad call in the Broncos-Chargers game, which may mean he can’t work in the playoffs this year.  GIven all of your harsh comments, I’m guessing most of you think it’s too light.

The official statement, from NFL spokesman Greg Aiello:

 ”Officials are held accountable for their calls. They are graded on every play of every game.  Ed has been an outstanding official for many years, but he will be marked down for this call. Under our evaluation system, an official’s grades impact his status for potentially working the playoffs and ultimately whether or not he is retained.”

At the same time, the referees association has made it clear that they are standing behind Ed.  They admit that he obviously screwed up, but they point to his 19 years of experience (with very little criscism).  Tim Miller, the executive director of the NFLRA, had this to say:

“No one feels worse about this than Ed, but like the coaches and players in our high-speed game, mistakes will occur.”

“The NFLRA stands by Ed Hochuli as a 19-year veteran with multiple Super Bowl and countless playoff game experience who has the integrity and character to admit a mistake and accept the criticism that comes with it.”

So what do you think?  Should Hochuli have been punished more, for what was really just one quick mistake?  Or does the fault lie with the NFL, whose rules didn’t allow Hochuli the ability to fix it (by awarding the ball to San Diego)?

After the Broncos-Chargers mess, we figured it would happen — the NFL has officially announced they’ll be looking into the inadvertent whistle rule during the next offseason.

ESPN compares it to the “down by contact” rule that was changed a few year ago, which allowed officials to review some plays that they previously couldn’t.

It’s it a bit to late to please Chargers coach Norv Turner, but it’s nice to see the NFL taking steps to prevent this from happening again.