Cleaning Up After Ed Hochuli

Since Ed Hochuli's brain fart at the end of the Chargers/Broncos game this past Sunday there has been plenty of commentary on his mistake, the righteous fury of San Diego fans, and what could have been. We know the league has taking action by downgrading Ed's place among his peers. We know noone is taking it harder than Ed himself. We know the fans of San Diego aren't going to get over this for a long time especially if it ends up biting them down the road come playoffs time. We know Norv Turner (pictured) went home after the game and kicked his dog.

But what people aren't getting into as much is what should be done to prevent it in the future. I've seen a few members of the NFL competition committee mention that they'll look into it before the 2009 season begins but we haven't seen much in the way of what exactly they'll consider doing.

The league under Roger Goodell has a healthy appetite for making updates to the game that make the fans and players alike feel like they're getting the best possible experience each week whether it's helping protect the players, letting defenders actually play receivers, promoting good sportsmanship, or lessening referee impact by eliminating some of the trickier judgment calls and instituting a system for reviewing plays. Some recent examples of these changes include a 2007 update that allows "down by contact" plays to be reviewed and a 2008 update that allows defenders to push players out of bounds if they try to catch the ball close to the out-of-bounds line.

As for the Ed Hochuli situation that happened this past Sunday I think there are two options worth considering. First is the obvious and easiest - the referees should be instructed (or more likely re-instructed) not to blow the whistle in that type of situation. If the QB's arm rolls back to throw the ball and the ball comes out just let the play run its course. Players know to play until the whistle blows and you can always review the play if it's within the last 2 minutes of the half or the coach's can throw a red flag. If the referee happens to be watching the cheerleaders instead of the play and makes the wrong call (not saying Ed did that .. but that would almost make it ok wouldn't it?) then have a coin toss to see who gets possession. I don't see any other way to handle it. Players know to stop playing once that whistle blows so whatever happens after the whistle has to be discarded. Period. The most you can do is then give each team a 50/50 chance to gain possession. It isn't a perfect solution but it's better than what we currently have.

The second option is a lot more controversial but I think would lead to a better game experience. The current NFL rulebook defines a fumble as "the loss of player possession of the ball." I think this should be updated to exclude when a QB drops the ball behind the line of scrimmage as Jay Cutler did against the Chargers. The QB is the leader of the offense! On most teams he is your most talented player. He has to lead his offense down the field. He drops back and scans his receivers and tries to get them the ball. That's a lot of pressure and the QB has several ways he can fail: he can be sacked, he can be intercepted, he can be forced to throw the ball away, he can fumble, and he can be forced to run at which point he takes on the role of a RB. Look at all of the other positions in football. A WR can drop a pass or fumble. A RB can fumble or be tackled behind the line of scrimmage. A K can botch his kick. An OT can miss the block on his defender. There just isn't any position where you have as much potential to turn the ball over as QB.

I really don't want to see a potentially game-changing possession change because the QB was running around trying to make something happened and dropped the ball because it was drenched in his Center's crotch soup. I think it's a harsh punishment for such a simple mistake. What I would propose as an alternative is counting the play as a sack with loss of down and have the ball placed at the spot of the drop. This would still penalize the QB and his team for his fumble while not taking away the Defense's motivation to get to him. Some might say this paves the way for shenanigans where the QB will intentionally fumble to avoid trouble but they can do that now anyway for the most part. A QB can throw the ball away at any time resulting in an incomplete pass or an intentional grounding penalty so this wouldn't be adding a new "out" for the QB.

Hopefully we'll hear something about the possible solutions as the season goes on and that the decision is made in the same spirit of fair play that the NFL has embraced these past few years.