So I am watching this Baltimore/Pittsburg game and they just challenged a spot, respotted, and remeasured to see if it was a first down (it was). I have always thought that this measurement stuff is hilarious that they are so inexact with spots and so exact with measurements (see that hilarious Alabama gif), but unless you add technology to the football I am not sure what else you could do.
The question I have is when the ball is not near any of the hashmarks, how do they guarantee that the chains are straight up the field? When some of these measurements come down to an inch or two, it wouldn't take much to shorten the 10 yard distance if they were off by a degree or two or 5. It seems like there really isn't anything other than just eyeballing it, but if anyone has any insight into this I'd love to hear it. Any officials out there?
If you notice, before they move the chains, a ref will pick up a spot somewhere in between the two markers. he is making a mark where the chain is on a particular five yard line. When they place the markers in the middle of the field, they actually are not concerned where the original LOS is. They will stretch the first down marker from the mark that the ref made at the particular five yard line to determine the first down. I hope this makes sense.
So I think I have noticed that, but that is just to see how far forward or backward, I am talking about the angle it points up and down the field. Obviously they can get it close, and with the 5 yard marker it wouldn't have to stretch over 10 full yards, but it could still be off by an inch or so if it is crooked by just a little bit.
From my quick calculations, if the ball is ~5 yds from the ref's point of reference, the marker would have to be off 6 degrees for it to be off by an inch. As you can see from this picture:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Degree-Radian_Conversion.svg/300px-Degree-Radian_Conversion.svg.png
Six degrees is quite a bit. Especially over that long a distance.
By the way, if you want to look at it, here is the equation:
x = L - L*cos(a)
where:
x = distance between straight-line marker and hypothetical "off" marker
L = total distance from ref's point of reference to the marker
a = angle that the marker is hypothetically off by
I have always found this kind of silly as well. On first down, the chains are "eyeballed" to the spot, and then every down after the ball is placed using nothing more than a 50 year old guys eyes from 30 feet away to line it up. But then on 4th down, they bust out the chains and try to convince us that somehow those are exact measurements. Funny stuff.
I actualy watch the spots during games all the time, if you pay close attention you will see spots that are WAY off many times throughout the game, there is really a lot of inexact ball placement going on. It's the human element of the game though, and we just live with it, not a big deal, just always kind of bothered me it was so willy-nilly.
Thank you Javalen for doing the calculations I didn't feel like doing. Yeah I guess it wouldn't make a huge difference, but I have always found it hilarious how precisely imprecise the whole measuring thing is and was curious about the angle aspect. I played on some hilariously lined fields for soccer and baseball growing up (and have seen some horribly lined football fields), so I just figured it was one more imperfect aspect that they pretend to make so precise.
I have ran chains in games, there are tiny adjustments a chain crew can make to change a measuement. Sometimes one or two links determines a game, and that is easy to make up.
I always laugh when a punter kicks one off the side of his foot and the line judge attempts to spot the ball where it was presumed to have gone out of bounds and then they bring out the chains 4 downs later...
As far as I know, the referee tracks the ball out of bounds and then the line judge watches for his signal to know when to stop.
I think on a punt out of bounds they use 2 officals to spot it. Its actually not that difficult. You have the Referee in the backfield stand on the spot where the ball is kicked and eyeball where it land out of bounds. If you watch the side judge, he will come up the sideline eyeing the referee to indicate when the side judge is on the line between where the ball was kicked and where it went out. The best they can assume for this is that the ball traveled in a straight line.
sorry javelin, you beat me to it. My post has more words though, so its better
Funny you should mention this. In college ball, I've seen increasingly generous spots this year when it is right by the first down marker. My guess is that it helps to speed the game up (think of the time taken for a measurement, another play, a possible time out if it's 4th and inches). As with probably many of you, I've invested many hours of watching football and can generally eyeball a spot just short of a first down (sarcasm here, mixed with my wife's frustrated nodding). Have been amazed several times this year to see fresh set of downs and chains walking down the field. I'd be interested to see if anyone else has noticed this.
When I went to the Illinois game earlier this month I noticed that the guy in charge of the first down marker would just plop it down onto the field and then make it straight. A couple of times he didn't even straighten it up. Seemed very nonchalant about it.
Our honor defend we will fight to the end for Ohio..