NFL referee Ed Hochuli brought the zebra position back into the spotlight once again after blatantly blowing a call and stealing a game from the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.

This certainly isn’t the first time an official has blown more than their whistle, but it is the timing of the call that demands so much attention.

When a zebra like Hochuli throws his common sense out the window and determines the outcome of a game, it restructures the entire division. In a league with a short 16 game schedule, the Broncos are suddenly 2-0 and the Chargers 0-2, two full games behind in the division.

The game-determining call occurred when the Broncos were on the Charger’s one-yard line with only a minute left in the game. Broncos QB Jay Cutler dropped back to pass and dropped the ball. The ball was scooped up by the Charger’s defense and while the Chargers began celebrating on Denver’s grass, Hochuli decided to pull the heist.

“Fumble, I think”, said Cutler.

“I blew the call . . . I failed miserably.” – Referee Ed Hochuli

“It’s unacceptable.” – Chargers Coach Norv Turner

“This is the best crew we’ve had in the past 20 crews. They did a heckuva job.” – Denver Coach Mike Shanahan.

Mike, stop making a fool out of yourself by making stupid-ass comments like that. It’s best to allow this fiasco to run its course and not go public to support this moron and his blunder.

Shanahan is the only person on the NFL planet that thinks so highly of Hochuli after Sunday’s blunder.

The NFL certainly does not and confirmed on Monday that Hochuli will be “graded down” after handing the game to the Broncos.

The NFLRA released a statement that included, “No one feels worse about this than Ed.”

Wanna bet! Ask every Chargers player, coach and fan. Ask the owners who have multi-million dollar investments into their business. When they win they make money; when they lose, they don’t.

Looks like another zebra blew more than his whistle on Sunday and triggered talk of rule changes, like the infamous coin toss game on Thanksgiving Day years ago; (see “This Referee Wears his I.Q. on his Jersey” in our Bizarre Moments section.)

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

NASHVILLE – Starting Titans quarterback V.Y. is expected to be out for 2-4 weeks for hurt feelings . . . well the official diagnosis is actually a sprained medial collateral ligament.

In an interview with The Tennessean newspaper, Coach Jeff Fisher made no promises as to when Young will be back. “MCL sprains vary depending on the player and the knee”, Fisher said. “Some come back in couple of weeks, some come back longer. I am just not going to speculate on how long he is going to be out.”

Facing the media for the first time since the “implosion”, Young told the Tennessean that “the media and his mother both over-reacted”.

Wonder if his mom might unlease a can of whoop-ass on him after she hears that one.

Many disagree with V.Y; saying he, in fact. over-reacted to being booed by his hometown fans after throwing his second interception of the game.

Most of the Titan fans responding to the Sports Climax feature posted yesterday, showed displeasure with their QB. In emails and comments sent to Sports Climax throughout the day, NFL fans used words like diaper and cry baby to express their feelings.

Expect this circus to continue long after V.Y. returns to the team. I can envision the signs and posters that will follow this young star around the league . . . anybody know how to draw a pacifier?

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

Dear Vince:

We hope you are doing well. There is a lot of concern and confusion surrounding you and your recent ordeal. You’re a young millionaire in a fantasy job yet you feel it is justified to whine about fans booing you; to the extent of refusing to go back into a game.

Stop the Ben Wallace act. The Titans are your employer and Jeff Fisher is your boss. When our bosses tell us to go to work, we do it like you and Wallace are expected to do. Concerning your fans, they have the right to boo and it’s the media’s job to write about you and all the other athletes.

So Vince, where’s the beef? Nobody understands or sympathizes with your pissing and moaning this past week.

If we go to work and someone “boos” us, we don’t have our Mothers step in and defend us, especially on national television. Your Mother held her “press conference” and is asking people how they would feel if people were saying things about them.

Depends. If we were making millions like you while in a fantasy career like you, Vince, then we would suck it up like the hundreds of other athletes do on a weekly basis, go into the game when we’re told, play hard, take the boos and pick up the paycheck on Friday.

And what’s with the running and hiding? Coach Fisher has more important things to do than get frantic calls from your mother.

Coach should be sitting in a room watching films with your hard-nosed teammates who are sucking it up after getting physically and mentally battered on Sunday . . . watching those discouraging game films that verify that your Titans need to resolve their low-rated passing game.

Vince, in case you haven’t noticed, you’re making more per game that most people make in several years combined. You were handed a starting QB job on a respectable NFL franchise and for some reason you believe the fans who pay your multi-million dollar salary do not have the right to voice their opinion when you’re doing a shitty job.

Most of your fans have embraced you since you arrived. They go to real jobs that take a great deal of physical and, or, mental energy. Their reward to themselves for busting their asses all week is to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a ticket and attend a football game to watch guys like you play.

These fans have the right to boo you, your team, the opposition or anyone else, especially when they are displeased with your or the team’s performance.

You know, cheering and booing are the only two common means of communicating to teams and players that fans have. They can also make signs and hold them in front of TV cameras to get their point across as you will soon find out when you return to the NFL.

Why should the common sports world as we know it suddenly stop to accommodate Vince Young because he and his Mom don’t agree with the fans and media’s response. As you already know, your Mom relayed other information to the national media; that you “may not want to play football anymore.”

If you and your Mom cannot accept the fans and media telling it like it is, then hang up the spikes and return all the millions and millions of cash you have been paid. The Titans can give it to someone with the necessary amount of testosterone to handle the NFL QB position.

We know you had an MRI since Sunday’s injury but the concerns are greater than ligaments or tendons in a knee. These concerns have escalated to the point, Coach Fisher now says you will have to earn your starting job back. Looks like you’ve opened a can of worms, Vince.

This morning Chris Simms must have been thinking, “I better turn my cell phone on.” In case you haven’t heard, your Titans just signed Simms, the guy that played through a game in Tampa with a ruptured spleen and bruised ribs. 

After all Duante Culpepper has been through emotionally and physically, he must be thinking, “What a pussy” and “Damn, I wish my cell would have rung!”

Professional athletes are chastised by the fans and the media every day and 90 percent of the time they deserve it, like in your case.

Good luck fixing this one. It may go down as a classic and the media is going to be chewing on this one for a long time . . . like a bad piece of steak.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

DETROIT – The Detroit Lions season is still days away and they are already finding ways into the national spotlight. ESPN, the NFL Network and media outlets around the country are having a field day with this one.

Lions running back Tatum Bell’s bag-snatching fiasco this week at the Lions facility was recorded on security surveillance cameras. In case you’re living in a cave and missed it, Bell is accused of, and was videotaped, stealing Rudi Johnson’s Gucci bag from the locker room.

In an interview with The Detroit Free Press on Wednesday, Johnson insisted that Tatum stole his stuff; “All this happened once he got released. He came here to get some stuff out of his locker. That’s when he scooped the bags up. Some real shyster, conniving stuff, man.”

Tatum who was cut by the Lions to make room for Johnson said he thought the bags belonged to another released Lion player who was also sent packing that same day and that he was asked to pick up the bags.

First of all girls, stop fighting amongst yourselves and what the hell is a grown, macho-type guy like Johnson, doing with a Gucci bag to begin with.

So here we are before the season’s first Lion fumble in the red zone and the Lions have already found a way to look like a bonehead organization. Reminisent of when Roy Williams refused to tip a pizza delivery guy, like when Coach Marty Morningway won a coin toss in overtime but gave the ball to the home team Chicago Bears who marched down the field and won.

What are the real facts surrounding this snatch-and-grab circus?

Who cares!?

It’s time to put on the pads in Atlanta and try to win this Sunday’s opening game, a battle many believe a showdown between the two sorriest francises in the NFL.

It’s time to lace ’em up and play some NFL football!

There lies the problem. The Lions normally are not capable of playing NFL football. There record over the last several years under Matt Millen proves that. And where is Matt while all this bickering and embarrassment surrounds his Lion’s team?

I haven’t seen Millen comment on this yet. Maybe he’s still walking around looking like a homeless drunk. Millen looks like a guy who’s in the witness protection program lately, in disguise . . . incognito. He may be tired of being recognized in public by ticked off Lions fans.

Tatum has reason to be pissed off at the Detroit Lions organization for destroying his career but he doesn’t have the right to steal another player’s belongings in retaliation.

Tatum is a guy who had rushed for over 1,000 yards prior to coming to Motown and was promised playing time which he rarely saw. When he asked to be traded, the Lions benched him for the remaining games of that season, ruining his chances to pursue a contract during the following free agency period.

Bell, like many other star-caliber players and coaches made the mistake of coming to Detroit then were stuck in a situation that ripped their careers apart at the seams. (Google Marcus Pollard, Damian Woody and Steve Mariucci)

That’s another whole issue and article in itself but getting back to week one for 2008 let’s ask the Lions; can you somehow stop finding ways to embarrass yourselves?

It’s difficult enough for the football fans of Detroit to stay loyal to an NFL organization that remains in our near the cellar in their division year after year; never lives up to their promises and preaches character to their players while giving one of their coaches a little slap on the wrist after he was arrested and charged for driving through a Wendy’s drive-thru naked? (Google Lions Joe Cullen)

Are you ready for some Lions football!

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax

A compilation of the best photos of pro athletes in Halloween costumes. Can you recognize these players? 

Hint: Two are Dennis Rodman.

Our Fav: Jon Kitna as Joe Cullen (the Lions coach who drove thru a Wendy’s drive-thru naked) with his wife dressed as Wendy.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax