August 28, 2025 • 20 mins
Refs aren’t supposed to be the stars… but sometimes they turn into them anyway. We dive into two of the most iconic refs in sports history: Wes McCauley, the NHL official with a flair for the dramatic, and Ed Hochuli, the NFL’s “professor of penalties." From viral soundbites to cult-hero status, these two turned officiating into works of art.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
In the old days and not the seventies or eighties,
I mean way before humans harnessed electricity. Back then, there
was only one way to know what was going on
in your local area, or rather one person, the town crier.
Medieval villagers couldn't just log onto TikTok to hear fringe
(00:50):
conspiracy theories about the black plague or get email updates
on the king's new tax regulations. Plus, even if they
had access to emails, the majority of people back then
couldn't read, so the burden of sharing royal decrees, market prices,
local bylaws, advertisements, and other announcements fell to town criers,
(01:12):
also called bell men, who were technically officers of the
royal court or public authority. These criers wore elaborate, often
bright colored clothing, a tricorn hat, and sometimes even armor.
Most carried hand bells, which they would ring to get
people's attention before announcements, and started off their proclamations by
(01:33):
shouting oye oye oyea, which roughly equates to here ye
hear ye, hear ye. Due to the dangerous nature of
the job, like having to tell people their taxes are increasing,
town criers were legally protected by the law, and attacking
one was considered treason. It's one of the reasons the
phrase don't kill the messenger has existed for so long.
(01:56):
Yet not all the proclamations were dangerous, and a few
criers throughout history became quite popular in their communities, like
elderly Scottish crier bt Dick, who opted to begin her
announcements by smacking a wooden plate with a spoon instead
of ringing a bell. In modern times, town criers still
exist in some parts of the world, though the majority
(02:19):
have been replaced by social media, news organizations and bulletin
boards now that most people can read. If anything, the
closest current day counterparts to medieval town criers are sports
referees hear me out. They have uniforms, whistles instead of bells,
make announcements to big crowds of onlookers that are often
(02:41):
unpopular and are granted their authority by a powerful organization
that backs them. Most. Just like the criers, tend to
stay as anonymous as possible, delivering their proclamations dryly and
avoiding the spotlight at all costs. Yet there are always exceptions,
which brings us to today's episode. Two referees to very
(03:04):
different sports and two styles of officiating that turned their
calls into legendary soundbites. That's right, we're diving into the
stories of Wes McCauley, the NHL ref who turned hockey
calls into unforgettable drama, and Ed Hoculey, the NFL ref
who made rulings sound like law school lectures delivered by
(03:26):
a bodybuilder. So sit back, relax, and let's get into
today's episode of Sports Dot MP three. Born in Ontario, Canada,
(03:55):
Wes McCauley always aspired to spend his career skating on
the ice and NHL arenas. There's no doubt that his father,
John McCauley, was its significant influence on those dreams, as
he was a referee for the National Hockey League from
nineteen sixty six to nineteen eighty one. It seems like
he would have refereed for much longer if not for
(04:17):
a severe right eye injury he suffered in nineteen seventy
nine that permanently damaged his depth perception when a fan
attacked him after refereeing a game between the NHL All
Stars and Soviet Union. Despite the injury, John stayed around
the NHL and eventually became the director of officiating in
nineteen eighty six. Bearing that in mind, it should come
(04:39):
as no surprise that West turned out to be a
pretty good hockey player. He eventually attended Michigan State University,
playing as a defenseman all four years and even co
captaining the team his senior season. He was drafted by
the Chicago Red Wings in the eighth round of the
nineteen ninety NHL Entry Draft and bounced around several minor
league hockey teams for the next few years before injuries
(05:02):
forced him to retire in nineteen ninety seven. He quickly
shifted his focus towards becoming a referee, just like his father,
who sadly passed away in nineteen eighty nine due to
complications following an emergency surgery. Wes's journey to the top
of the refereeing ladder was a fast one, and by
two thousand and five, he found himself living out his
(05:23):
childhood dream of skating on the ice and NHL arenas
as a full time job, just as the guy in
white and black stripes instead of as a player. McCauley's
first decade as a referee went fairly under the radar,
which is typically a good thing for refs. That began
to change around twenty sixteen, when Wes gave the hockey
(05:44):
world a glimpse of his flare for the dramatic. In
the world of live sports, there aren't many moments more
exciting than watching the home teams score a goal in
a hockey game. Wall in the arena, the puck heads
towards the net, there's a half second pause of silent
anti anticipation, followed by a loud horn confirming the goal,
(06:04):
and then chaos. The feeling of pure adrenaline and joy
shoots through the arena in an instant unless the goal
has to be reviewed. That whiplash of celebrating a goal
and suddenly realizing it might not count absolutely sucks, especially
those agonizing minutes waiting for the referee crew to make
(06:25):
a decision on if the goal counts or not. And
when that decision does come, it's always in the form
of a pedantic monotone, a motionless voice emanating from one
of those nameless, faceless referees. For whatever reason, maybe because
he was a ten year veteran of the league at
that point and not just some young upstart In the
(06:45):
third period of a Monday night game on March twenty eighth,
twenty sixteen, between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks,
Wes McAuley delivered one of the more memorable goal calls
in NHL history. I would set him down a path
of popularity rarely reached by referees. The home team, Sharks,
(07:06):
scored a goal to put them up four to two,
basically securing the win, and the crowd was celebrating like it.
The goal was immediately placed under review by the NHL's
situation room, as there was a chance that a player
on the Sharks had kicked the puck into the goal,
which would disallow it. After a few painstaking minutes, Wes
(07:26):
McCauley turned on his mic and added a touch of
drama to the delivery, instantly winning over the crowd. Here's
the announcement after reviewing the play. The call on the
ice stands. If you're thinking the call wasn't that dramatic,
(07:49):
you really have to listen to some typical referee calls
because they're really boring. Plus, hockey referees announced penalties way
less often than sports like footballing The funny announcement standout
even more. Within a day of the game, McCauley's goal
call was dubbed an all time classic by hockey fans
and spread throughout the sports world, turning Wes into somewhat
(08:12):
of a cult hero as the clip went viral. It
was also somewhat of a turning point in his career,
like the part in a cheesy underdog movie where the
main character truly embraces who they are and then a
montage with upbeat music plays of the character succeeding. For Wes,
it would be him embracing his personality and flair for
the dramatic, and the montage would be a series of
(08:34):
hilarious viral soundbites. About a year after this iconic call,
while officiating a game on February twelve, twenty seventeen, between
the Montreal Canadians and the Boston Bruins, Wes had to
announce a major penalty for fighting. So he tapped into
the deepest depths of his magic reservoirs and conjured up
(08:55):
his most famous one yet boughted Love Guys five minute
for fighting. You might think the NHL wouldn't want one
of its rule enforcers to appear as anything other than
an unbiased, unemotional spokesperson, but the league has never stopped
(09:16):
him from making these trademark calls, even when officiating several
Stanley Cup finals. If we're being honest, it's hard to
overestimate how much leniency is afforded to McCauley simply because
the players actually like him. While he became a fan
favorite after injecting his personality in two calls, a number
of haters have risen from the ranks of adoring supporters
(09:37):
to make claims that he's selfish, egotistical, and making the
game too much about himself over the past several years.
To be quite frank, the existence of a referee truly
loved by all fans will always be an impossibility, but
a referee loved by all players is a possibility, one
that wes McCauley almost fully in bodies. According to the
(10:00):
the past few years of data from anonymous NHL player polls,
beccaulay is undoubtedly the most popular referee among players. During
these yearly polls, the players are asked who their favorite
referee is, and he tends to get about fifty percent
of the total votes, with second place garnering under twenty percent.
(10:20):
So whether you love him or hate him, the players
love him, so it seems like he's not going anywhere soon.
(10:43):
Ed Hoculey was born on Christmas Day, nineteen fifty in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
the second of six children. He stood out in high
school as a four sport athlete, later attending the University
of Texas at El Paso, where he played four years
as a lineback decker and earned a Bachelor of Arts
with honors when he graduated in nineteen seventy two. Just
(11:06):
as Wes McCauley followed his father's footsteps, Hoculee did the same,
except his father wasn't a referee, though his occupation was
one of the few that could compare to the amount
of hate referees receive. And that's because Walter hocule worked
in law as a wills and a state planner. That
influenced Ed to pursue a career as a lawyer. So
(11:29):
he worked as a law clerk while earning his jd
from the University of Arizona Law School, and upon graduating,
worked as a trial lawyer before then becoming a partner
at Jones, Skeleton and Hoculee PLC since nineteen eighty three.
Throughout his pursuit of a legal career, Edward never lost
his love for sports. As a law student, he started
(11:52):
refereeing Pop Warner football games and umpiring Little League baseball
games to earn extra income. By nineteen seventy three, he
had decided to focus solely on football and officiated high
school games around the Tucson area until nineteen eighty five.
In the early eighties, when he wasn't working as a
lawyer or officiating high school football games, you would hope
(12:14):
he was sleeping. Instead, he was officiating college football games
as a line judge. If you feel inadequate about doing
enough after hearing that, join the club. In nineteen ninety,
Hokkulee was hired by the NFL as a back judge,
and just like Wes McCauley, it didn't take long for
him to rise up the ranks. By nineteen ninety two,
(12:36):
he was promoted to a full time referee, a position
he would occupy until he retired nearly three decades later
in twenty eighteen. If Wes rose to officiating fame for
his entertainment value, Hokkulee rose to officiating fame for his
explanation value. As a practicing lawyer, Hakuley was the perfect
(12:58):
person equipped to not only understand dan the NFL rule book,
which has more rules and regulations than an average legal contract,
but also translate its confusing jargon and over complicated rulings
into comprehensible sentences that fans could actually understand. Standing at
six foot two and weighing two hundred and thirty pounds,
(13:19):
Heculee first became somewhat well known in the NFL because
he looked like he could throw on a helmet, bull
rush the offensive line, and knock a quarterback out clean,
earning him nicknames like Hercules Hoculee, and ed the Head.
But it was his clear, transparent and comprehensive explanations of
on field rulings that truly elevated him to celebrity status
(13:42):
in the refereeing world. He unleashed one of these textbook
explanations that have since been appropriately coined as Hoculee ted
Talks or lessons from Heculee University. On the prior play,
my flag was being returned to me. It was tossed
back to me, hit the ground. When that happened. The
clock operator thought there was a penalty, has stopped the clock.
(14:03):
The clock should have continued to run. There should be
twelve seconds taken off the clock, so it should be
one four take the point clock down twelve seconds as well.
In a world where most referees would simply say there
was no foul on the play fourth down, his sincere
(14:26):
breakdowns stood out, and clips of his calls slowly and
steadily made their way into sports blogs and onto YouTube
as examples of the right way to officiate games. McCauley
acted as an entertainer, injecting drama into a sport desperately
in need of it, while acule acted as a professor,
(14:47):
translating these complex rules into easy to understand on field explanations.
Yet his immense popularity is not just due to his
lawyer like breakdowns, it's also because of his authenticit Listening
to him speak, it's clear that he genuinely wants everyone
listening to understand the reasoning behind the calls. This genuine nature,
(15:10):
this desire to make sure everyone is on the same page,
has also produced some hilarious sound bites. One of the
funniest occurred in the second quarter of a two thousand
and seven game between the Chargers and Patriots. With New
England up seventeen to nothing, the Chargers ran the ball
on first down and gained a couple of yards, but
a flag was thrown, indicating a potential holding call against
(15:33):
a Chargers player. Aculee and his officiating crew huddled for
a few seconds after the play and determined that there
actually was not a hold. When Ed explained the reasoning
for the no call to the crowd, he inadvertently and
absolutely roasted the Patriots defender in the process. There was
no avowal on the play was not a hole. The
(15:55):
defender was just overpowered. After the announcement, the camera immediately
hands to the face of a bewildered Bill Belichick, and
if you're making that guy show emotions, you're clearly doing
something worthwhile. I can't finish this episode without mentioning the
last category that viral Hecule soundbites fall under the category
of over explaining. Having created so many clear quick breakdowns,
(16:20):
it's understandable that on occasion he got a little too
wordy or excited, with my personal favorite example coming during
a game between Washington and the New York Giants when
hecule starts to stumble over his words. Legendary announcer John
Madden can't help but drop a reminder to those listening
that Heculey is in fact a lawyer. Train the SoundBite
(16:44):
into an iconic audio clip. There were two files by
the defense offense that correctly, I'm sorry, he's a lawyers
that penalty is declined. There's also personal file face mask
that penalties in force. Half to goal first down Referees
(17:19):
are delta difficult hand. They have to enforce the rules
of the game, no matter how ridiculous, arbitrary, or ambiguous
they might be. They have to deal with screaming fans,
players and coaches, make half second decisions that can make
or break a team's entire season or a player's legacy,
and have to remain as unbiased as possible no matter
(17:40):
the scenario. According to some, the ideal referee is the
one you don't remember, which makes the popularity of refs
like Wes McCauley and Ed Hoculey so fascinating, especially given
the lack of similarity between their refereeing styles. If you
bring it all the way back to the town criers,
the concept makes a little more sense. The best town
(18:02):
criers and referees alike have one thing in common, a
firm grasp of their place in the world. Think about
a town crier that has to announce new tax regulations
on merchants. A bad one might try to make the
announcement funny, while a good one, one who knows that
he's carrying a message that won't be taken well by
the people he's announcing it to, would probably elect to
(18:25):
take the Hecule approach and break down the new tax
regulations as clearly as possible. Heculey and McCauley both had
a keen understanding of not just the rule book, but
how to best use their role as a referee to
elevate their sport as best they could. For McCauley, that
was leaning into the emotions and drama, and for Hocule,
(18:48):
that was making everything make sense. The two are prime
examples of how you can achieve greatness by embracing who
you are, whether that's as an entertainer or a law professor.
And that does it. For today's Quick Hits episode of
Sports Dot MP three, Thank you so much for listening.
Please follow us on ig TikTok and x at sports
(19:11):
underscore MP three and subscribe to our YouTube channel at
Sports mp three. I'll be back Thursday with a new episode.
See you next week. Peace did Last
In the old days and not the seventies or eighties,
I mean way before humans harnessed electricity. Back then, there
was only one way to know what was going on
in your local area, or rather one person, the town crier.
Medieval villagers couldn't just log onto TikTok to hear fringe
(00:50):
conspiracy theories about the black plague or get email updates
on the king's new tax regulations. Plus, even if they
had access to emails, the majority of people back then
couldn't read, so the burden of sharing royal decrees, market prices,
local bylaws, advertisements, and other announcements fell to town criers,
(01:12):
also called bell men, who were technically officers of the
royal court or public authority. These criers wore elaborate, often
bright colored clothing, a tricorn hat, and sometimes even armor.
Most carried hand bells, which they would ring to get
people's attention before announcements, and started off their proclamations by
(01:33):
shouting oye oye oyea, which roughly equates to here ye
hear ye, hear ye. Due to the dangerous nature of
the job, like having to tell people their taxes are increasing,
town criers were legally protected by the law, and attacking
one was considered treason. It's one of the reasons the
phrase don't kill the messenger has existed for so long.
(01:56):
Yet not all the proclamations were dangerous, and a few
criers throughout history became quite popular in their communities, like
elderly Scottish crier bt Dick, who opted to begin her
announcements by smacking a wooden plate with a spoon instead
of ringing a bell. In modern times, town criers still
exist in some parts of the world, though the majority
(02:19):
have been replaced by social media, news organizations and bulletin
boards now that most people can read. If anything, the
closest current day counterparts to medieval town criers are sports
referees hear me out. They have uniforms, whistles instead of bells,
make announcements to big crowds of onlookers that are often
(02:41):
unpopular and are granted their authority by a powerful organization
that backs them. Most. Just like the criers, tend to
stay as anonymous as possible, delivering their proclamations dryly and
avoiding the spotlight at all costs. Yet there are always exceptions,
which brings us to today's episode. Two referees to very
(03:04):
different sports and two styles of officiating that turned their
calls into legendary soundbites. That's right, we're diving into the
stories of Wes McCauley, the NHL ref who turned hockey
calls into unforgettable drama, and Ed Hoculey, the NFL ref
who made rulings sound like law school lectures delivered by
(03:26):
a bodybuilder. So sit back, relax, and let's get into
today's episode of Sports Dot MP three. Born in Ontario, Canada,
(03:55):
Wes McCauley always aspired to spend his career skating on
the ice and NHL arenas. There's no doubt that his father,
John McCauley, was its significant influence on those dreams, as
he was a referee for the National Hockey League from
nineteen sixty six to nineteen eighty one. It seems like
he would have refereed for much longer if not for
(04:17):
a severe right eye injury he suffered in nineteen seventy
nine that permanently damaged his depth perception when a fan
attacked him after refereeing a game between the NHL All
Stars and Soviet Union. Despite the injury, John stayed around
the NHL and eventually became the director of officiating in
nineteen eighty six. Bearing that in mind, it should come
(04:39):
as no surprise that West turned out to be a
pretty good hockey player. He eventually attended Michigan State University,
playing as a defenseman all four years and even co
captaining the team his senior season. He was drafted by
the Chicago Red Wings in the eighth round of the
nineteen ninety NHL Entry Draft and bounced around several minor
league hockey teams for the next few years before injuries
(05:02):
forced him to retire in nineteen ninety seven. He quickly
shifted his focus towards becoming a referee, just like his father,
who sadly passed away in nineteen eighty nine due to
complications following an emergency surgery. Wes's journey to the top
of the refereeing ladder was a fast one, and by
two thousand and five, he found himself living out his
(05:23):
childhood dream of skating on the ice and NHL arenas
as a full time job, just as the guy in
white and black stripes instead of as a player. McCauley's
first decade as a referee went fairly under the radar,
which is typically a good thing for refs. That began
to change around twenty sixteen, when Wes gave the hockey
(05:44):
world a glimpse of his flare for the dramatic. In
the world of live sports, there aren't many moments more
exciting than watching the home teams score a goal in
a hockey game. Wall in the arena, the puck heads
towards the net, there's a half second pause of silent
anti anticipation, followed by a loud horn confirming the goal,
(06:04):
and then chaos. The feeling of pure adrenaline and joy
shoots through the arena in an instant unless the goal
has to be reviewed. That whiplash of celebrating a goal
and suddenly realizing it might not count absolutely sucks, especially
those agonizing minutes waiting for the referee crew to make
(06:25):
a decision on if the goal counts or not. And
when that decision does come, it's always in the form
of a pedantic monotone, a motionless voice emanating from one
of those nameless, faceless referees. For whatever reason, maybe because
he was a ten year veteran of the league at
that point and not just some young upstart In the
(06:45):
third period of a Monday night game on March twenty eighth,
twenty sixteen, between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks,
Wes McAuley delivered one of the more memorable goal calls
in NHL history. I would set him down a path
of popularity rarely reached by referees. The home team, Sharks,
(07:06):
scored a goal to put them up four to two,
basically securing the win, and the crowd was celebrating like it.
The goal was immediately placed under review by the NHL's
situation room, as there was a chance that a player
on the Sharks had kicked the puck into the goal,
which would disallow it. After a few painstaking minutes, Wes
(07:26):
McCauley turned on his mic and added a touch of
drama to the delivery, instantly winning over the crowd. Here's
the announcement after reviewing the play. The call on the
ice stands. If you're thinking the call wasn't that dramatic,
(07:49):
you really have to listen to some typical referee calls
because they're really boring. Plus, hockey referees announced penalties way
less often than sports like footballing The funny announcement standout
even more. Within a day of the game, McCauley's goal
call was dubbed an all time classic by hockey fans
and spread throughout the sports world, turning Wes into somewhat
(08:12):
of a cult hero as the clip went viral. It
was also somewhat of a turning point in his career,
like the part in a cheesy underdog movie where the
main character truly embraces who they are and then a
montage with upbeat music plays of the character succeeding. For Wes,
it would be him embracing his personality and flair for
the dramatic, and the montage would be a series of
(08:34):
hilarious viral soundbites. About a year after this iconic call,
while officiating a game on February twelve, twenty seventeen, between
the Montreal Canadians and the Boston Bruins, Wes had to
announce a major penalty for fighting. So he tapped into
the deepest depths of his magic reservoirs and conjured up
(08:55):
his most famous one yet boughted Love Guys five minute
for fighting. You might think the NHL wouldn't want one
of its rule enforcers to appear as anything other than
an unbiased, unemotional spokesperson, but the league has never stopped
(09:16):
him from making these trademark calls, even when officiating several
Stanley Cup finals. If we're being honest, it's hard to
overestimate how much leniency is afforded to McCauley simply because
the players actually like him. While he became a fan
favorite after injecting his personality in two calls, a number
of haters have risen from the ranks of adoring supporters
(09:37):
to make claims that he's selfish, egotistical, and making the
game too much about himself over the past several years.
To be quite frank, the existence of a referee truly
loved by all fans will always be an impossibility, but
a referee loved by all players is a possibility, one
that wes McCauley almost fully in bodies. According to the
(10:00):
the past few years of data from anonymous NHL player polls,
beccaulay is undoubtedly the most popular referee among players. During
these yearly polls, the players are asked who their favorite
referee is, and he tends to get about fifty percent
of the total votes, with second place garnering under twenty percent.
(10:20):
So whether you love him or hate him, the players
love him, so it seems like he's not going anywhere soon.
(10:43):
Ed Hoculey was born on Christmas Day, nineteen fifty in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
the second of six children. He stood out in high
school as a four sport athlete, later attending the University
of Texas at El Paso, where he played four years
as a lineback decker and earned a Bachelor of Arts
with honors when he graduated in nineteen seventy two. Just
(11:06):
as Wes McCauley followed his father's footsteps, Hoculee did the same,
except his father wasn't a referee, though his occupation was
one of the few that could compare to the amount
of hate referees receive. And that's because Walter hocule worked
in law as a wills and a state planner. That
influenced Ed to pursue a career as a lawyer. So
(11:29):
he worked as a law clerk while earning his jd
from the University of Arizona Law School, and upon graduating,
worked as a trial lawyer before then becoming a partner
at Jones, Skeleton and Hoculee PLC since nineteen eighty three.
Throughout his pursuit of a legal career, Edward never lost
his love for sports. As a law student, he started
(11:52):
refereeing Pop Warner football games and umpiring Little League baseball
games to earn extra income. By nineteen seventy three, he
had decided to focus solely on football and officiated high
school games around the Tucson area until nineteen eighty five.
In the early eighties, when he wasn't working as a
lawyer or officiating high school football games, you would hope
(12:14):
he was sleeping. Instead, he was officiating college football games
as a line judge. If you feel inadequate about doing
enough after hearing that, join the club. In nineteen ninety,
Hokkulee was hired by the NFL as a back judge,
and just like Wes McCauley, it didn't take long for
him to rise up the ranks. By nineteen ninety two,
(12:36):
he was promoted to a full time referee, a position
he would occupy until he retired nearly three decades later
in twenty eighteen. If Wes rose to officiating fame for
his entertainment value, Hokkulee rose to officiating fame for his
explanation value. As a practicing lawyer, Hakuley was the perfect
(12:58):
person equipped to not only understand dan the NFL rule book,
which has more rules and regulations than an average legal contract,
but also translate its confusing jargon and over complicated rulings
into comprehensible sentences that fans could actually understand. Standing at
six foot two and weighing two hundred and thirty pounds,
(13:19):
Heculee first became somewhat well known in the NFL because
he looked like he could throw on a helmet, bull
rush the offensive line, and knock a quarterback out clean,
earning him nicknames like Hercules Hoculee, and ed the Head.
But it was his clear, transparent and comprehensive explanations of
on field rulings that truly elevated him to celebrity status
(13:42):
in the refereeing world. He unleashed one of these textbook
explanations that have since been appropriately coined as Hoculee ted
Talks or lessons from Heculee University. On the prior play,
my flag was being returned to me. It was tossed
back to me, hit the ground. When that happened. The
clock operator thought there was a penalty, has stopped the clock.
(14:03):
The clock should have continued to run. There should be
twelve seconds taken off the clock, so it should be
one four take the point clock down twelve seconds as well.
In a world where most referees would simply say there
was no foul on the play fourth down, his sincere
(14:26):
breakdowns stood out, and clips of his calls slowly and
steadily made their way into sports blogs and onto YouTube
as examples of the right way to officiate games. McCauley
acted as an entertainer, injecting drama into a sport desperately
in need of it, while acule acted as a professor,
(14:47):
translating these complex rules into easy to understand on field explanations.
Yet his immense popularity is not just due to his
lawyer like breakdowns, it's also because of his authenticit Listening
to him speak, it's clear that he genuinely wants everyone
listening to understand the reasoning behind the calls. This genuine nature,
(15:10):
this desire to make sure everyone is on the same page,
has also produced some hilarious sound bites. One of the
funniest occurred in the second quarter of a two thousand
and seven game between the Chargers and Patriots. With New
England up seventeen to nothing, the Chargers ran the ball
on first down and gained a couple of yards, but
a flag was thrown, indicating a potential holding call against
(15:33):
a Chargers player. Aculee and his officiating crew huddled for
a few seconds after the play and determined that there
actually was not a hold. When Ed explained the reasoning
for the no call to the crowd, he inadvertently and
absolutely roasted the Patriots defender in the process. There was
no avowal on the play was not a hole. The
(15:55):
defender was just overpowered. After the announcement, the camera immediately
hands to the face of a bewildered Bill Belichick, and
if you're making that guy show emotions, you're clearly doing
something worthwhile. I can't finish this episode without mentioning the
last category that viral Hecule soundbites fall under the category
of over explaining. Having created so many clear quick breakdowns,
(16:20):
it's understandable that on occasion he got a little too
wordy or excited, with my personal favorite example coming during
a game between Washington and the New York Giants when
hecule starts to stumble over his words. Legendary announcer John
Madden can't help but drop a reminder to those listening
that Heculey is in fact a lawyer. Train the SoundBite
(16:44):
into an iconic audio clip. There were two files by
the defense offense that correctly, I'm sorry, he's a lawyers
that penalty is declined. There's also personal file face mask
that penalties in force. Half to goal first down Referees
(17:19):
are delta difficult hand. They have to enforce the rules
of the game, no matter how ridiculous, arbitrary, or ambiguous
they might be. They have to deal with screaming fans,
players and coaches, make half second decisions that can make
or break a team's entire season or a player's legacy,
and have to remain as unbiased as possible no matter
(17:40):
the scenario. According to some, the ideal referee is the
one you don't remember, which makes the popularity of refs
like Wes McCauley and Ed Hoculey so fascinating, especially given
the lack of similarity between their refereeing styles. If you
bring it all the way back to the town criers,
the concept makes a little more sense. The best town
(18:02):
criers and referees alike have one thing in common, a
firm grasp of their place in the world. Think about
a town crier that has to announce new tax regulations
on merchants. A bad one might try to make the
announcement funny, while a good one, one who knows that
he's carrying a message that won't be taken well by
the people he's announcing it to, would probably elect to
(18:25):
take the Hecule approach and break down the new tax
regulations as clearly as possible. Heculey and McCauley both had
a keen understanding of not just the rule book, but
how to best use their role as a referee to
elevate their sport as best they could. For McCauley, that
was leaning into the emotions and drama, and for Hocule,
(18:48):
that was making everything make sense. The two are prime
examples of how you can achieve greatness by embracing who
you are, whether that's as an entertainer or a law professor.
And that does it. For today's Quick Hits episode of
Sports Dot MP three, Thank you so much for listening.
Please follow us on ig TikTok and x at sports
(19:11):
underscore MP three and subscribe to our YouTube channel at
Sports mp three. I'll be back Thursday with a new episode.
See you next week. Peace did Last
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