![]() The job of marking this progress fell to the linesman, one of then four on-field officials (along with a referee, umpire and field judge). Also notable: Teams now needed to gain 10 yards for a first down, up from five. Thus, the unnecessary roughness penalty, the restricted forward pass and the fair catch. Many of these new guidelines were geared toward curbing on-field violence, an issue that had resulted in dozens of deaths since the turn of the century. Reid and Yale coach Walter Camp, the group made what one national newspaper described as “numerous and radical changes” to the rules of the sport. Under the leadership of Harvard coach William T. On March 31, 1906, at a posh New York City hotel with gryphon statues flanking the lobby’s marble staircase, a relatively nascent group of pigskin power brokers known as the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee met. I would call it more of a … unique experience.” “Some people say to me, ‘That looks like fun, I’d love to be down there.’ Well, it is, but there’s a lot of pressure. ![]() “Not everybody can do it,” says Jim Heutter, who spent four decades on the Bills’ crew and now operates the play clock upstairs. But their shared experiences are singular. The threats to their livelihood-whether posed by tackles spilling past the sideline or new technology-are all too real. The fear of messing up on live TV is constant. “We’re part of the NFL tradition,” Ingrao says.Ībove all, to claim a precious place on one of the league’s 32 chain crews is to exist in a singular football family. They are those average Joes and Janes who get to jog onto the field and participate in the timeless custom of measuring a first down with two tall poles and 10 yards of metal. What fan wouldn’t recognize the chain gang? They are the cartoon figures hup-hup-huping on stadium JumboTrons after big gains by the home team, encouraged by a crowd chanting, “MOVE! THOSE! CHAINS!” They star in a Progressive ad campaign about two crewmates who never drop the sticks and therefore never leave each other’s side, including in the bathroom. Together, though, Hein and her ilk are far more famous than the rest of the supporting cast that keeps the NFL machine humming. (See also: ballboys, photographers, backup quarterbacks.) “Half the time, people are so into the game, they don’t even know we’re there,” Hein says. Such is the life of football’s ficus plants, those forgettable ornaments of sideline feng shui, forever lurking in the corner of your screen whenever the camera cuts to a coach. “For us chain crew geeks,” Hein says, “it was a cool moment.” There they set about untangling the chain, stretching out the sticks and, ultimately, triumphantly, scrambling into their positions, 10 yards apart, just as play resumed.Īside from a bemused on-field official who later complimented Hein and Ingrao for making it back for the snap- Great job, guys! I’ve never seen anybody do that in two minutes!-nobody within eyeshot appeared to catch their heroics. ![]() Spare equipment on his shoulders, Ingrao huffed back to Hein at the Washington 25, the new line of scrimmage. He cut through coaches and juked around players until he reached the spot near midfield where the crew kept a backup set of down markers it had never needed, until now. So he did the only thing he could: He ran.ĭumping his stick on the grass, the 62-year-old sprinted through the bench area. Ingrao first checked to see if the link was fixable-it very much was not. Now it was a two-minute drill in the most literal sense, the ad break ticking away and no chance to kill the clock.
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