In 2008, Ed Hochuli cost the Chargers a game against the Broncos by wrongly ruling that Denver quarterback Jay Cutler had thrown an incompletion, when he had actually fumbled. Afterward Hochuli apologized and admitted he had botched the call.
The apology wasn’t much consolation to the Chargers or their fans, but it apparently impressed the folks at Bloomberg Businessweek, who have turned to Hochuli for the annual “how to” issue, proclaiming him the expert who knows how to admit a mistake.
“We’re here today to talk about how to admit a mistake,” Hochuli says in a video at the Bloomberg Businessweek site. “No sense trying to hide from it. You learn from the mistake you made, you learn why, why did it happen, what can I do to prevent it from happening again, how do I improve from this. But be forthright about it. And that’s how you admit a mistake.”
Bloomberg Businessweek describes itself as the place to find “advice from more than 60 CEOs, tech visionaries, politicians, media and sports personalities, designers, and artists on ‘How To’ address real problems, both on a global scale and within the walls of your own office.” So Hochuli is now considered one of America’s foremost authorities on the right way to admit mistakes.
Some day, it would be nice to see NFL referees who are experts on how not to make mistakes in the first place.