Ed Hochuli is more than Biceps?

12 May 2009

While I have referreed myself in several games of my life for elementary basketball, I will admit that it was a tough job. I could not imagine being an NBA or NFL official, which is why I found this piece on Ed Hochuli that much more interesting. Not only is he an officiating machine on the NFL field, but he’s also a legal machine in real life. This is a little excerpt describing the day in his office following the widely disputed Denver – San Diego call made at the end of the game last year:

 

An exceedingly polite woman sits at the reception desk in the offices of Jones, Skelton & Hochuli, a Phoenix firm that touts itself as one of the most experienced litigation groups in Arizona. It is unknown whether she’s the same brave soul who worked the morning of Sept. 15, the day after the disaster in Denver, when the e-mails poured in from angry Chargers fans and bettors, and the firm’s phone lines had to be shut down.

That’s one of the drawbacks to being a lawyer-slash-NFL official in the Internet age. When something goes wrong, an industrious man’s contact info is only a few clicks away.

It was clear from a fairly young age that Hochuli would be a lawyer, just like his father and two brothers. He loved the research, poring over depositions and precedents, having a box full of jurors look to him for the answers.

And almost always being right.

“As trial lawyers, one of the reasons we [like trying] cases is the adrenaline rush,” Hochuli says. “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.”

Source: ESPN