Ed Hochuli’s inadvertent whistle that negated a Jay Cutler fumble at the end of Sunday’s Chargers-Broncos barnburner gave Denver the extra chance it needed to win the game, and as pissed off as San Diego fans are, no one feels as badly about it as Hochuli.

“He’s devastated,” said Mike Pereira, the NFL’s supervisor of officials. “… I was talking to Ed within 10 minutes after the game was over, and he was sick. He’s still sick (yesterday). [...]

Most remarkably, posts on various Internet forums indicated Hochuli replied to hundreds of e-mails from fans Monday. In those e-mails, he apologized for his mistake.  One such e-mail… read:

I’m getting hundreds of emails – hate mail – but I’m responding to it all. People deserve a response.

You can rest assured that nothing anyone can say can make me feel worse than I already feel about my mistake on the fumble play. [...] Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection – I failed miserably. Although it does no good to say it, I am very, very sorry.

I’ve found that a nice way to say sorry is flowers.  Flowers and oral sex.  If he really wants to make it up to San Diego, he should probably clear his schedule this week.

[Shutdown Corner; image source]