I noticed something very interesting while at the Stanford-Washington game this weekend. Obviously, the game was extremely boring for two reasons: (1) Both teams suck, (2) Jake Locker got injured, and (3) all I wanted to do was get back in my car and drive home to Portland. So the outcome of my boredom was that I started focusing on what the refs were doing about half-way through the first quarter. (I should be completely honest here, and say that I left the game at halftime with the Huskies losing 21-14, a deficit that I figured was insurmountable for a Tyrone Willingham-led team. Stanford won 35-28 in a yawner). So with only one half of data as back-up, this is what I found interesting: On almost every single play, the officials spotted the with the ball exactly at the hash-mark or main yard line. Someone please comment here if this is comment practice, but I’ve never noticed it and I have never heard people talk about it.
My findings:
-
Without fail, they did this on every single first down that wasn’t inside the 10-yard line. No matter what, whether is was a guy running out of bounds or tackled in bound, the ball was spotted at a hash mark. When they are outside the hashes, the ball is obviously spotted as shown in the picture above. When they were tackled inside the hashes, the ref spotting the ball (the umpire?) would line it up with the hash marks, as the line judge would run from the sideline to the hash mark.
-
Once I saw the line judge running down after a play was dead and take a step to the side in order to line up with the hash mark.
-
Any run under 3-4 yards they seemed to spot pretty accurately, as these were typically in a pile in the middle of the field, so I think it’s pretty easy for them to do that, plus if they were to get that wrong by a half yard plus/minus, it would be pretty obvious.
-
Anything out of bounds they would just round up a yard and put it at that hash mark. This stuff happens so fast that I don’t really think it’s a big deal, but even when players would run out between yard lines, they’d put in on the hash
-
Once it got close to a first down or deep in the red zone, they were more specific with their ball placement
My thoughts:
-
It makes sense that they do this after first downs, as it makes it easier for them to move and place the chains accurately.
-
After incomplete passes, it also helps them place the ball at the exact same spot as before.
-
It would allow them to be much more accurate in marking off 5/10/15 yards after penalties.
-
It also lets the refs easily call the first down when the offense has gone betwen 9-1/2 to 10-1/2 yards by just looking at where the ball is in respect to the hash mark instead of actually measuring it.
-
Is this common across football, or just bad Pac-10 refs not giving a shit between the 8th and 9th best teams in their conference?
-
I re-watched the third quarter of the ND game, and I couldn’t tell if the refs were doing it here too, but it seemed like a lot of ball placements were right on the hashmarks. This is something that’s easier to see in person if you’re seated near the middle of the field like I was on Saturday night. In person, you can see what the refs do more than on TV since they usually cut to replays right after each play.
-
This is just one of the reasons why I think the whole “bringing out the chains” thing is such crap. Unfortunately, there’s no other way to do it, but almost every time a ball is spotted, the ref is completely eye-balling it. It’s amazing that the fate of so many games rest in the inches of placement of the ball.
Has anyone else ever noticed this either on TV or in person? Keep an eye out for it in future games.
Filed under: Expert Analysis
I am a High School official for the State of Indiana. It is a common practice. It is much easier for the chain crew and re-placing the ball. It also makes it easier when a play results in a first down (unless its close) because if the next set of downs is close, they won’t have to have the “chain gain” come out on the field and delay the action of the game. In lower level games every play ends on a hash mark because we only have two or three officials. Hopefully this clears things up for you. I would think that it gets less common as the ranking of an official goes up high school, college, and pro.