Oct 7th 2008 2:40PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
Filed under: Eagles, Falcons, Jaguars, Packers, Ravens, Redskins, Saints, Steelers, Titans, Vikings, NFL Referees
Once again, the NFL’s only famous official came under significant scrutiny this week … and the game was on a national stage, being the Monday night contest between the Vikings and the Saints. There were two calls in particular that we’ll check out.

Incident 1: Reggie Bush’s facemask mangled, and no one saw it.
MDS already covered this here on FanHouse, but I wanted to point a few things out. First of all, please do not blame Hochuli. If you blame him, you don’t know anything about officiating. Ed Hochuli is the referee, and the ball was moving away from him. If he was in proper position — and I’m assuming he was — he would have been watching the lineman on the backside and protecting the quarterback from unnecessary roughness. Even if he did glance over at the ball, which admittedly we have a tendency to do, he would have seen Bush’s head turn from behind.

You still can’t assume that’s a facemask from his point of view. Allow me to present a scenario:Continue Reading