Mike Wilbon wrote a column yesterday on Ed Hochuli’s blown call that cost San Diego the win in Denver last weekend.  In it, he wrote:

But Hochuli did something I doubt most NFL players or coaches would do: He answered the e-mails personally. He didn’t forward them to his bosses in New York. He didn’t hide behind a professional spinmeister, didn’t look to hire a spokesperson, didn’t issue a terse “no comment” or try to pass the blame off on somebody else. Hochuli, in what has to have been his most difficult and perhaps even humiliating public moment, acted in as sportsmanlike a manner as is humanly possible.

It’s another example of sports providing good life lessons.

It’s also a good example of how a strategy to earn respect one person at a time can lead to a wave of respect all at once.  I’ve never emailed Ed Hochuli in my life, but because he spent a few late nights this past week responding to people who did, and that grew into a story published in the Post, I now have a positive impression of what kind of person he is.

The key, though, is that there was no “strategy.”  It was authentic.  His NFL bosses even asked him to stop responding — but he knew that stepping up and answering these critics was the right thing to do.  I never thought I’d say this about a part-time referee / full-time lawyer, but why can’t we all be more like Ed Hochuli?