How do linesmen/referees accurately use the “measuring sticks” in football? If they have to pick up and run with the sticks and chain halfway across the field, how do they really know where to place the sticks when measuring?
Why are field goals measured from the place where the kicker kicks the ball, but punts are still measured from the line of scrimmage? The explanations that I read say that field goal kickers kick from an established point, but punters don’t. Since the advent of television and replays, this is a pretty stupid answer. Why doesn’t the NFL switch already?
Simple. The chain will always cross one of the 5 yard solid lines. They pick up the chain at the link that touches one side of the line, and put it back down on that line when they get across the field. The “sticks” can be stretched out after that one link is in place.
Question #1. a small clip-on tag is placed at the near edge of the yard marker closest to halfway between the the two poles held by the chain crew.
That way when the chain crew is called onto the field or have had to vacate the area they are standing, they can relatively easily find the same spots again. Just line up and clip-on to the near side of the yard marker and stretch the chain.
I have heard that the NFL and the NCAA have been experimenting with lasar “chain crews”, but I don’t know how valid the rumor is.
Both punters and kickers stand at predetermined distances from the line of scrimmage, but sometimes the punter stands closer.
Deep in your own end, as a punter, you would be closer to the line. When punting, it is best to figure out what is going on if you can think of distances in terms of yards from the line of scrimmage. A 50 yard punt with a ten yard return is simply a 40 yard net. It works nicely for punting.
As a place kicker, you stand 7 yards back - that is pretty much rule of thumb and doesn’t change. It is easier to describe the total distance in yards, from the placement of the ball to the goal posts. There is no reason to measure it from the line of scrimmage and add ten yards. If you are going to do that, just take the line of scrimmage and add 17. It’s different from punting because you really just need to understand what the kicker is up against, and if he misses, it comes back to the line of scrimmage. Unlike punting, there is no confusion for anyone.
Punting is cleaner when referring to the line of scrimmage because it makes it easier to figure out the distances a team pushed the other team back when punting. For field goals, this isn’t an issue, because the kick is either “good”, or the ball comes back to the line of scrimmage.
On a punt, the ball never hits the ground. However, on a kick such as a field goal or extra point, the ball touches the ground giving you “the spot of the kick”.
One of my best friends was an NFLpunter. HE said that every punter kicks from a different distance. IT is a philosophical point. IF you are deep, the blockers have farther to go. However, they hae a beeter angle on you. IF you are close in, then they don’t have as far to go but they have a bad angle.
Because of the differences, they measure from the scrimmage line for consistency.
Anyone notice the unintended (I assume) comedy in this line? Punters do not stand at a predetermined distance, they stand where ever they feel comfortable, and kick from a random location based on teh location fo the snap, speed of teh rush, and length of his strides. One punter probably kicks from a different distance behind the line on every attempt in a game.
For consistency, the official statistics are recorded from the line of scrimmage. I’m not sure of when it happened, and if the league keeps official stats or not, but they also record Gross and Net punting yardage. Gross being where it was recieved, net being where the return was stopped.
The unofficial, third party, statistic companies (Elias, Stats Inc., etc.) keep much more detailed stats like you mention, recording the true distance the punt traveled, hang time, and so on. Yes they can record this, but it simply is too complex for it to be recorded this way as an official method. I presume the league likes to keep stat recording simple so that a casual fan can do it without the benefit of instant replay, not to mention changing the method of recording a statistic would corrupt all the stats recorded from prior to the switch. For example, what does the NFL gain when they can’t easily compare Ray Guy’s stats to Brad Maynard’s because they are measured differently. Sure, if they really had to change, they could, but in this case what’s the pay off?
This is correct, and the “spot of the kick” is not necessarily 7 yards.
NFL
The ball is given to the other team at the spot of the kick unless it is from inside the 20 or if it is blocked and the defense tries to advance. Then they get it wherever the play ends. A missed field goal is like a punt in that respect. The defense doesn’t have to recover the ball.
NCAA
The ball is returned to the line of scrimmage unless it is inside the 20.
High school
The ball is always returned to the 20, regardless of the spot.
As for measuring punts, I do it in high school games and if you are working by yourself, you would have to be pretty good to figure out where the punter kicked from and then run all the way down the field to determine where the receiever caught the ball.
If they changed that rule, I would be rather ticked off. On placements, it’s quite simple to see exactly where the ball is being held.
Wow, that’s an odd rule. You mean even if a team tried a kick from the 50-yard-line and missed, the other team would get it at their 20? Then why not forget the punts and try a field goal every time? It would have a better result than a punt if a rule says that the other team gets it on the twenty regardless of the spot. How about if my team is backed up to our own 1-yard line, and we decide to try a 116-yard field goal? (I know, it wouldn’t happen, but if the rule is what you say…) You’d still have to take the ball on your own 20? That doesn’t seem fair.
I do know that in very rare cases I’ve seen missed field goals returned, much like punts. It doesn’t happen often because usually the ball ends up out of play after a missed FG. Is this allowed in high school? If so, then I guess that might be the reason teams don’t try impossibly long field goals just to give the other team the ball back on their own 20…
Missed field goals are like punts and they can be returned, so that keeps teams from trying incredibly long ones. Also high school teams tend to screw up the snaps a lot.
If a high school team lined up to kick say an 80-yard field goal, the defense would just put a guy deep and he would just try to return the miss, which wouldn’t be hard since the kicking team has to stay at the line to avoid a block.