Ed Hochuli

Edward G. Hochuli (born December 25, 1950) is an attorney for the firm of Jones, Skelton & Hochuli, P.L.C. since 1983, and has been an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) since the 1990 NFL season. His uniform number is 85. Prior to his officiating career, he played college football for four seasons at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).

Hochuli is one of the most respected officials in the NFL, having worked numerous playoff games, including two Super Bowls. He is also known for his athletic physique and explanations on the football field. In a poll conducted by ESPN in 2008, Hochuli tied referee Mike Carey for "best referee" votes among NFL head coaches with eight. Beginning his twenty-second season in the league and twentieth as referee (crew chief) with the 2011 NFL season, Hochuli's officiating crew consists of umpire Rich Hall, head linesman Mark Hittner, line judge Adrian Hill, field judge Craig Wrolstad, side judge Ronald Torbert and back judge Don Carey.

Early life
Hochuli was born on December 25, 1950 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and lived there until age eight before his family moved to Tucson, Arizona. He was the second child born out of a total of six siblings. During his childhood, he attended and later graduated from Canyon del Oro High School in the Tucson suburb of Oro Valley, Arizona in 1969. During his high school years, he had an interest in sports as he participated in football (earning all-state honors twice), basketball, wrestling, and track. He attributes his competitive nature to having an older brother, Chip Hochuli. Ed Hochuli told Referee in a 2004 interview, "I was somebody who wanted to be good and I wanted my brother to be proud of me, and I wanted my parents to be proud of me." Following high school, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from UTEP in 1972. While at UTEP, Hochuli played linebacker on the school's football team from 1969 to 1972. As a football player, he earned All-Western Athletic Conference academic honors in 1972. His father, Walter Hochuli, was involved with law as a wills and estate planner, which influenced Ed Hochuli to pursue a career in law. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Arizona Law School in 1976. While in law school, Hochuli served as a law clerk for two years under United States District Judge Carl Muecke. Upon completion of his education, Hochuli was admitted to the State Bar of Arizona.

Family
Hochuli resides in the Phoenix metropolitan area. He has a total of six children and ten grandchildren. He and his wife Cathie reside in Arizona. Of the six kids, Shawn Hochuli played college football at Pomona College and is following his father's profession as an official, currently working college football, Arena Football League, and arenafootball2 games - on August 13, 2011, a day after his father refereed a preseason game between the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars, Shawn was head referee for ArenaBowl XXIV between the Jacksonville Sharks and Arizona Rattlers. Scott Hochuli owns Hochuli Construction Team L.L.C., a company that specializes in residential construction in the Phoenix area. Two of Ed Hochuli's brothers are in law.

Attorney
Hochuli is a trial lawyer and a partner in the Arizona law firm of Jones, Skelton and Hochuli, P.L.C. since it was founded in 1983. The firm started with five partners and seven associates, and has expanded to over eighty attorneys. Hochuli specializes in civil litigation in the areas of Bad Faith and Extra-Contractual Liability, Complex Litigation, Insurance Coverage and Fraud, Legal Malpractice and Professional Liability, Product Liability Defense, Trucking and Transportation Industry Defense, and Wrongful Death and Personal Injury Defense, and claims to be involved in two hundred cases at any time. Hochuli finds interest in trying cases, calling it an "adrenaline rush" and adding, "You love that challenge -- the competition, if you will -- of it. It's a game. It's obviously a very important game to people, and I don't mean to diminish the importance of it. ... You have to follow these rules, and there's a win-or-lose outcome. You're on a stage."

He is admitted to practice in Arizona state and federal courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His recognition as an attorney includes being named Best Lawyers in America since 2003 and Southwest Super Lawyers in 2007. Super Lawyers includes only the top five percent of lawyers in a state based on point totals, as chosen by peers and through independent research by Law & Politics.

Comparing his law and officiating professions, he says "A trial is nothing, pressure-wise, compared to the NFL. … I have that long [snaps his fingers] to make a decision with a million people watching and second-guessing (by video) in slow-motion. You've got to be right or wrong. I love the satisfaction when you are right — and the agony when you are wrong." Hochuli finds similarities between the football field and courtroom saying, "On the football field, people like that I'm in charge and know what I'm doing, but a lot of the time, it's just appearance. I'm going to sell you on my decision.  It's the same in the courtroom.  You don't stand in front of a jury and say, 'I think my client is innocent.'  You say, 'We're right!'"

Early years
Hochuli began officiating Pop Warner football games as a law student to earn additional income, which was suggested by one of his former high school coaches as "a way to stay in touch with the game". His interest in officiating carried over into baseball, where he was a Little League Baseball umpire from 1970 to 1973. Progressing to the high school level in 1973, he focused on football, and officiated games in the Tucson area until 1985. In addition to high school officiating, he worked college football games for the Big Sky Conference and Pacific-10 Conference as a line judge during the 1980s.

Rise to refereedom
Hochuli was hired by the NFL in 1990 as a back judge after applying to the league before the 1989 NFL season. His first game in the league was on August 11, 1990 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. During his first two years in the league, he was assigned to the officiating crew headed by referee Howard Roe. To gain additional experience as a back judge and eventually a referee, Hochuli participated in the NFL's partnership with the World League of American Football (WLAF), a spring developmental league, in 1991 and 1992. Utilizing his experience in the WLAF, as well as the organization, precision, and analytical skills he learned while working under Roe's guidance, Hochuli desired to become a crew chief in the NFL. He was promoted to referee in 1992 when longtime referee Stan Kemp was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease and forced to retire. Hochuli had worked a pre-season game that year in Tokyo, Japan as a back judge when he received a telephone call following the game from then-Senior Director of Officiating, Jerry Seeman. Seeman asked Hochuli to work as referee for the first time when the Denver Broncos hosted the Cincinnati Bengals in a pre-season game.

Since becoming a referee, Hochuli headed the officiating crews for Super Bowl XXXII and Super Bowl XXXVIII, and he was selected as an alternate for Super Bowl XXXI, Super Bowl XXXVII, and Super Bowl XXXIX. In addition to working two Super Bowls, he has officiated five conference championship games as of the start of the 2007 NFL season. Every officiating game performance is graded by the league each week. These grades determine which officials are assigned playoff games, as well as the Super Bowl. Hochuli credits his mentor, Jerry Markbreit, a four-time Super Bowl referee, as the greatest influence on his career.

Officials' strike
Hochuli has served as the head of the NFL Referees Association, the union which represents NFL game officials. The union was responsible for negotiating a new contract for the officials prior to the 2001 NFL season. At the time, salaries ranged from a first-year official earning US$1,431 a game to a veteran official with twenty years of experience making $4,330 a game. Officials were looking for a 400 percent increase in salary while the league was offering just 40 percent. During the negotiations, Hochuli believed the issue in finding a resolution was to convince the league that officials are full-time employees.

At the start of the season, officials had rejected a league offer of a sixty percent immediate increase in salary, followed by an eighty-five percent salary increase in 2002, and a one-hundred percent increase in 2003. For the first time in league history, replacement officials were used during the regular season. Hochuli had distributed an e-mail to 1,200 potential replacement officials warning them that "Working as a scab will actually hurt and likely kill any chances you would have of ever getting into the NFL." He later regretted sending the letter to college football officials across the United States. The stalemate between the union and the league ended on September 19, 2001, when officials agreed to a six-year deal from the league with an immediate increase in salary of 50 percent with a raise each year. Officials had been locked out since the final week of pre-season games that year and returned to work on September 23, 2001 when the league resumed games following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Notable games
Hochuli has worked memorable games throughout his career. In his second year as referee, he worked the 1993 Thanksgiving Day game between the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins in Irving, Texas. During the final moments of the game, Miami placekicker Pete Stoyanovich had a field goal attempt blocked. The Cowboys' Leon Lett inadvertently touched the loose ball before the Dolphins' Jeff Dellenbach pounced on it. At the time, Hochuli had "no idea" what happened during the play and had to confer with three other officials to piece together the sequence of events. With the information gathered from the officials, he ruled that Miami retained possession of the football.

On October 2, 2005, he officiated the first regular season NFL game played outside the United States when the Arizona Cardinals played the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City, Mexico as part of the league's "Fútbol Americano" marketing campaign. On the first penalty announcement of the game, Hochuli gave the explanation in Spanish to pay respect to the host city and country.

He was the referee for the game between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, played December 17, 2006, that included Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre becoming the all-time leader for pass completions among quarterbacks in the NFL. Favre was unaware that his 4,968 pass completions were a record until he was informed during the game by Hochuli. Hochuli was the referee again for another Favre record-breaking moment when Favre threw his 421st touchdown pass of his career on September 30, 2007 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota to break the record previously held by Dan Marino.

One of Hochuli's notable explanations came during a 2007 regular season game between the San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots. While nullifying a holding infraction, he announced through his microphone, "There was no foul on the play. It was not a hold. The defender was just overpowered."

Controversial calls
On September 14, 2008, Hochuli officiated a now-infamous game between the San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos, which become notable for a highly controversial call near the end of regulation play. The call came with 1:17 left in the game, while Denver was in possession of the ball at the San Diego one-yard line, trailing the Chargers by seven points. On a second-down play, Denver quarterback Jay Cutler fumbled the ball, and it was recovered by San Diego linebacker Tim Dobbins. Ed Hochuli blew his whistle during the play, signaling that the play was dead and ruling an incomplete pass. Hochuli admitted his mistake and spotted the ball at the point of the fumble, but could not award possession to San Diego, and the play was not reviewable under then-current instant replay rules. Chargers head coach Norv Turner later said after the game, "Ed came over to me and said he blew it. And that to me is not acceptable." Hochuli responded to the situation, writing, "Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection – I failed miserably." Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was even fined $25,000 for publicly criticizing Hochuli. The NFL passed a rule the following offseason allowing such plays to be reviewable under the instant replay rule for the 2009 NFL season. Speaking to Referee in November 2009, Hochuli told the magazine, "It was really an easy play. I’ve thought many times why I did what I did. The best explanation is it was almost like dyslexia. I realized it was a fumble and did the wrong thing. I realized I was wrong but there was nothing I could do about it."

On December 5, 2010 at Ford Field in Detroit, Hochuli made a controversial call during a game between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions. It came in the fourth quarter with 9:06 left, while the Bears had the ball at the Lions' 22-yard line, trailing 20-17. On first down, Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler scrambled for an 8-yard gain to the 14, where he was hit by Detroit defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh, who applied a hard, two-handed shove to the upper back. The referee then flagged Suh for unnecessary roughness, ruling that Suh delivered an illegal forearm, "an unnecessary non-football act". The Bears would then score the winning touchdown one play later. After the game, Lions coach Jim Schwartz disagreed with the call, questioning what else Suh could have done differently. Several Detroit players also disagreed with the call, with receiver Calvin Johnson saying that Suh "didn’t go to the elbow. It’s obviously a push, a push down." Former NFL Vice President of Officiating and current Fox Sports analyst Mike Pereira wrote that, "It's a judgment call and one you have to live with. Player safety is [currently] a huge issue, and there will continue to be an emphasis by the officials to protect all players." Rich McKay, President of the Atlanta Falcons and co-chairman of the NFL Competition Committee, acknowledged that, "At full speed, you can see where (Hochuli) saw at least what he saw ... Player safety is always going to be at the forefront (for) these officials. I'm not one that's going to sit here and say right call or wrong call ... And what Ed Hochuli saw and what he called ... he thought he saw it, and he called it that way." The league fined Suh $15,000 for the hit, although he appealed that decision.

Celebrity
Hochuli's presence on the football field has created a cult following. His rise in popularity is believed to have been started by Phil Simms, a former NFL quarterback and current color commentator for the NFL on CBS, who made reference to the size of Hochuli's arms during a telecast. On the Internet, websites that sell Hochuli merchandise as well as blogs with his namesake exist. He is often affectionately referred to as "Hochules", a combination of his last name and "Hercules", in homage to his large biceps. While he is aware of his celebrity status, Hochuli does not understand it. He said in a USA Today interview, "I get a kick out of the notoriety, because I'm just a referee. I'm not the players. The players are the game. They're what this is all about. I get notoriety because I explain things, and I get notoriety because I have a decent physique, which is funny because I'm a shrimp, a peewee compared to those players.  Neither one of those things has anything to do with whether I'm a good referee." His recognition stems to the streets, in airports, and in the courtroom. He has been approached by notable athletes such as former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Charles Barkley at the airport. "It never ceases to amaze me," Hochuli told the Arizona Daily Star. "The number of people that will just come up to me and recognize me." He appreciates the attention, saying, "I enjoy the fact that there are people who like me as a referee. I hear from a lot of people and I enjoy that. Like anybody, I like praise. Probably because of my personality, I thrive on that more than other people."

Hochuli's career as an NFL official has been chronicled on the NFL Network's Six Days to Sunday in 2005. The half-hour television program detailed the game preparations that Hochuli goes through from Monday to Saturday during the season. This preparation work includes fifteen hours of video tape game review, a "couple hours" completing administrative tasks for the NFL, reading the rulebook, taking a weekly written exam on rules, and communicating with league supervisors.

Hochuli's celebrity status off the field includes being mentioned on the "Top Ten List" during the January 29, 2002 edition of the Late Show with David Letterman. His likeness appears in the Madden NFL video game franchise starting with Madden NFL 06.