Petition to remove Ed Hochuli and Officiating Crew from future NFL Games

[SportsTop]

You gotta love the internets.

Every tool and his friend has a voice to make himself look like the biggest fools on the planet.

Hochuli is a very good official. I'd like to see some punishment come down (in the form of crews not making the playoffs and/or superbowl) when their performance merits it, but this type of thing is outlandish.

[ZB9]

nevermind

[The C]

People take this stuff way to seriously.

[ZB9]

Quote: Originally Posted by The C

People take this stuff way to seriously.

no kidding

im guilty of it also, but it's a game people

[poster]

Ed is one of my favorites and also one of the best. He did blow it big time though and I feel for the Chargers and their fans. He will be punished though as he will not grade high enough to referee the Super Bowl.

[slickdtc]

NFL refs make mistakes, it happens. This one just happened to cost the team more because it was so close. You just got to take it and know you'll get a good call some day.

But overall, NFL officials are the best in the business. By contrast, NHL officials have to be the worst.

[J0nnD0ugh]

I wouldn't start a petition, simply because it wouldn't work. But I can't agree w/the majority who take a "mistakes happen", "move on" type approach. I give Ed credit for mentioning he made a mistake (though it was in Denver, so it wasn't that scary). But people lose jobs over not making the playoffs. If San Diego ends up a game behind Denver & has to leave sunny Cali for the snowy Rockies to play in the postseason, that error can cause 2 losses, not just one.

What makes what Hoculi did so horrible is that he was wrong on 3 fronts. 1st, the ball came out of Cutler's hand before he went forward, making it a fumble. Next, the ball went backwards, which made it a fumble, even if he was throwing his hand forward. & third he blew the whistle early, which refs have been expressly told not to do, even if he thought it was a forward pass. The guy didn't make one goof, he made 3.

I don't believe we should be patting Hoculi on the head & saying "you'll get 'em next time, kiddo." The NFL should have zero tolerance for official mistakes directly affecting to outcome of games. Not when they spend good money on technological equipment, training & meetings to prevent this exact thing from happening.

He should be suspended. No question. You must reinforce to your officiating staff you are serious about following through on points of emphasis. You must assure the Charger franchise you take seriously the position they shouldn't be in. & lastly, you must assure the fans, in this age of Tim Donaghy, that you expect your refs to officiate a game in a fair manner.

[av7]

Crazy idea but refs are humans and not robots. They've made mistakes in the past, they'll continue to do so until they're removed from the field all together.

A bad call happened on Sunday and I'm sure another will happen this coming Sunday.

If anything comes from the game, it'll be a stable backup system for the replay booth so what happened wont ever happen again