Black and White and Running All Over: As an NFL 'zebra,' this Phoenix litigator referees bythe bookAuthor(s): JILL SCHACHNER CHANENSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 81, No. 8 (AUGUST 1995), p. 103Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27837253 .

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OUT OF THE OFFICE

Black and White and Running All Over

As an NFL 'zebra/ this Phoenix litigator referees by the book BY JILL SCHACHNER CHANEN

He's been knocked unconscious. He's been jeered, cheered and even

laughed at on national television. But Phoenix, Ariz., litigator

Edward Hochuli says nothing would make him trade in the white cap and striped jersey of the National Football League's officiating team.

"The enjoyment is something that only officials can understand," says Hochuli, a principal in Jones, Skelton & Hochuli. "It's like a fra ternity. We have this common vice or thrill we share that unless you do it, you can't understand it. It's in your blood. You want to get better, and you work and you work at it. You never want to make a mistake.''

An NFL official for five years, Hochuli, 44, is now a referee after holding the back-line judge spot for two years. On the field he wears No. 85 and positions himself behind the quarterback to watch over the ac tion behind the line of scrimmage. He also is responsible for the calls of his seven-member officiating crew, with whom he works through out the regular season. "I have final say over what happens, over the ad

ministration of penalties and for announcing them," he explains.

Hochuli relies on his experi ence in front of juries as prepara tion for announcing calls before football's vast viewing audience. But as any trial lawyer knows, no

preparation is ever enough.

Fifteen Minutos of Fame At a game last year, Hochuli

took the microphone to announce a time-out for the Detroit Lions. That day the team was wearing old-time uniforms that resembled ones the Seattle Seahawks wore the week before at another game Hochuli of ficiated. Before he could stop him self, he announced a Seattle time out. "I realized it immediately and said, Tm sorry. Time-out, Detroit.' "?

But not before the stadium an nouncer and wire service reporters heard it. The gaffe appeared in pa pers nationwide. "Every one of my

Jill Schachner Chanen, a law yer, is a free-lance writer based in Chicago.

friends cut out the squib from the papers and sent it to me," he recalls.

Hochuli travels every weekend except two during the football sea son. The travel can be tiring, he ad mits, but the pressure to perform on the field is more exhausting.

One of the things people are always sumrised about is the amount of

No. 85 Edward Hochuli ^Hp^^l^HH admits to being a ̂ ^^ hh^^^^^^^^H whisdeblower. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

time I spend on studying the rules. I do that year 'round," he says.

A long-simmering controversy over making NFL officials full-time employees is a source of irritation to Hochuli. "People don't recognize the amount of tim? we put in, but they also aren't thinking about what more we could do.

"We do everything we can. More time wouldn't make us better. The only way you can get proficient at defensive pass interference, for example, is to have it happen dur

ing a game. Experience is far and away the best teacher."

During the season, he arrives at his law office at 4 a.m. to make time for his NFL responsibilities. "I am very careful not to let my offici

ating interfere with my law prac tice, because clients don't want to feel that they are not getting my full attention during the football season," Hochuli says. "Also, it's not fair to my partners if I don't main tain the same level during the foot

ball season. It means longer hours. ... But so be it."

As a referee Hochuli is respon sible for filing reports with the league, handling administrative

matters for his crew and improving his crew's performance. The NFL reviews game tapes each week and grades officials on their on

field performance and on a series of weekly tests. The grades determine which officials will work during the playoffs and at the Super Bowl.

In the three years he has been eligible to officiate during the playoffs, Hochuli has made it every year. Last season he was the referee for the Dal las Cowboys-Green Bay Packers divi sional game.

"There is no doubt in my mind that there is a Su per Bowl in Ed's future," says Art Demmas, a mem

ber of Hochuli's crew for two years and a four-time Super Bowl referee. "He's destined to work several of them. I credit him and the other crew members for helping me ob tain my fourth Super Bowl."

Hochuli began officiating when his own career as a linebacker for the University of Texas at El Paso ended. A coach suggested he try it as a way to stay in touch with the game. Hochuli has moved steadily up the officiating ladder ever since, graduating from youth leagues to

high school and then to Division -

A college football and then to the Pacific Coast 10 Conference. In 1990 he moved up to the NFL.

While Hochuli has adjusted to the unrelenting criticism from play ers, fans and TV announcers, he says the self-imposed pressure to excel on the field never goes away. Besides, he jokes, "How many jobs are there where you are videotaped, and then your boss watches you the next day in stop-action?"

? DARREIL SANDIER/NFL PHOTOS AND ABAJAOM GERCZYNSKI ABA JOURNAL / AUGUST 1995 103

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