Football Marker

Factual Questions
1

I am curious as to how the football “down” marker used on telivised game, works

2

If you mean the electronic yellow line, there’s an explanation somewhere in the GQ Forum.

3

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question225.htm

If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I’d be at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.

4

I just want to know why the NFL is still hiring people to carry those chains around to mark a first down. Can’t they just install an electronic lighted device?

Geez, we can send a man to the moon…

5

And what, integrate it into the field surface? You think astroturf causes nasty injuries? Just wait until players start tripping over strip lighting.

If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I’d be at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.

6

An electronic eye device would have a lot of problems.

  1. Everybody would run over it on the sidelines. If you’ve ever been on the sidelines of a football game, you’ll see that it’s pretty much controlled chaos.
  2. Football fields get used for other things, soccer matches, concerts, and you’d have to take out the equipment and put it back in later, which would be a real pain.
  3. It’s laughable to have some sort of laser sighting device to mark a first down, when the placement of the ball by the officials is all pretty much guesswork.