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One of the NFL’s fresher-faced referees will be on hand when the New Orleans Saints kick off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next week. The league assigned Shawn Hochuli and his crew to its next Monday Night Football game, where all spotlights will be trained on Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Hochuli, the son of longtime referee and long-winded speaker Ed Hochuli (who retired in 2018), was promoted to the post after working as a side judge and back judge from 2014 to 2017. In Week 1, Hochuli’s crew threw a dozen penalty flags with six each on the Seattle Seahawks (drawing 46 penalty yards) and the Atlanta Falcons (72 yards) in a 38-25 Seahawks win on the road.
He has worked three Saints games in his career, but two of those matchups were 2015 games when he was a back judge. Hochuli did take the stage as a referee in last year’s Monday Night Football game with the Indianapolis Colts at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, which the Saints won handily 34-7. The Saints and Colts drew similar penalty numbers in that matchup, with the Saints netting six flags for 52 yards while the Colts received seven fouls for 49 yards.
So far, Hochuli and his crew have done a great job calling games evenly. We’ll see if they keep it up under the spotlight on Sept. 21.
The referee lineup for Week 2 matches: pic.twitter.com/7NIYGAsrqt
— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) September 15, 2020
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