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Originally Posted by HMc
When they come out to determine whether its a first down, i don't see why they go to the effort of measuring it on the field - becuase the spot they use for the start of the chain is based on where they've positioned on the sidelines, right? So why can't they just show the corresponding spot 10 yards down, surely they have a spot on the sidelines for this aswell?
I might have to draw it.
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Barring a laser/GPS system (which I would support, incidentally), there's too much potential for error with just eyeballing the spot relative to a point on the sideline. When the chain gang comes in, you'll note that there's a guy who grabs the chain on an even yard line and runs out with the two guys holding the two ends. He then positions his link of the chain on that yard mark again, and they stretch out the chain from there. If you take out the very real and very likely possibility that they're not lined up perfectly straight, then it's a very precise measurement. (I note, of course, that "precise" is a very different concept than "accurate.")
The bottom line is that some sort of high-tech system would be superior. The challenge is that you'd have to link the system to the officials' whistles, so that it would only record the furthest advance prior to the whistle blowing. That's not a big problem, though.