No apology by NFL referee Ed Hochuli is good enough for fans of the San Diego Chargers, not if a blown call in last Sunday’s loss to the Denver Broncos ends up costing Norv Turner’s team a spot in the playoffs.

If that happens, Hochuli will be to San Diego supporters what Steve Bartman is to Cubs fans.

Yet, like our old buddy Rocky Balboa once said, “It ain’t how hard you hit — it’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

Hochuli knew he made a mistake immediately after ruling a Jay Cutler fumble was actually an incomplete pass. If the call is correct, the ball goes to the Chargers and they win.

Instead he blew the whistle prematurely, negating a change of possession and giving the ball back to the Broncos at the spot of the “fumble” that wasn’t.

Naturally every jerk in the world had to fire off an e-mail to Hochuli, (it’s amazing how anonymity makes folks so bold) many of a threatening nature.

What did Hochuli do?

He answered them. He apologized. He admitted he made a terrible error. In fact, he said, “I failed miserably.”

In reality the NFL is at fault for providing a safety net for a quarterback when such a play occurs. Under league rules once the whistle blows the play cannot be reviewed in the booth, which is absurd.

So yes, Hochuli screwed up, but the NFL Rules Committee screwed up worse.

Still, this official — who has worn stripes for a quarter of a century and worn them well — offered no alibis for his error. He could’ve ignored the criticism and gone into hiding, but he didn’t.

He was and is a man.

Based on news reports the tide has turned somewhat. The e-mails are still coming, but now they’re a bit more sympathetic. Mistakes are made at workplaces every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Most of them, however, don’t happen on national television and in front of 70,000 screaming fans.

Again, this hardly makes the Chargers feel better. Victory was in their grasp when Cutler lost his grasp on the football, but the record book reads Denver 39, San Diego 38, and that score will stand forever.

But Ed Hocholi is an honorable man, and to define his career by one unfortunate call is to dismiss a body of work that has helped make him one of the best officials in the National Football League.

Whether the mistake will cost him a spot working the NFL playoffs has yet to be determined. It shouldn’t. Instead, it should make the league revisit its application of rules involving quarterbacks and whistles.

The bottom line is that we all make mistakes. And facing those mistakes head on — as Hochuli did — proves he has a lot more guts and character than all those hateful, anonymous e-mailers combined.