Other than his biceps, NFL referee Ed Hochuli may be best known for his lengthy, made-for-TV explanations of rulings.
But Sunday, he may have said too much without being on the mike.
Via Bill Voth of the Black and Blue Review, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton said Hochuli told him he “wasn’t old enough” to get a roughing the passer call when hit out of bounds against the Saints, and Newton admitted being “ticked off.”
“I was really baffled by what was said to me,” Newton said of Hochuli. “I was rolling out trying to string out the play and create some kind of opportunity to get a completion. The defensive lineman kind of hit me. It was close, right on the cusp, late hit, I don’t know.
“The response I got was: ‘Cam you’re not old enough to get that call.’ . . . I didn’t think you had to have seniority to get a personal foul.”
While there’s an unwritten code that older, more established quarterbacks tend to get an extra layer of protection, saying it is something else.
And saying it to a fifth-year quarterback who just got a $103.8 million contract seems both patronizing and unnecessary for an official of Hochuli’s experience.
