# How do gridiron football officials measure where the ball went out of bounds on a punt?t **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** football-nfl\ **Created:** [March 20, 2023, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gridiron-football-officials-measure-where-the-ball-went-out-of-bounds-on-a-punt-t/981392 "2023-03-20T01:50:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gridiron-football-officials-measure-where-the-ball-went-out-of-bounds-on-a-punt-t/981392/1 "2023-03-20T01:50:38Z")
In gridiron football, during punts, how do officials judge where a ball went out of bounds on a punt? Sometimes it’s still many feet in the air while it reaches the sideline. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gridiron-football-officials-measure-where-the-ball-went-out-of-bounds-on-a-punt-t/981392/2 "2023-03-20T01:59:53Z")
Ooh. I do this a few times a season. The head referee (R - white hat) is behind the punter. When a punt goes out of bounds, they go stand where the punter kicked from and lock in on where the punt landed. They put a hand up and chop in (point to) the deep wing official (F or S) as they come down the sideline and cross that line between punt kicked and landing. That’s a pretty good approximation of where it crossed the side line. (Now if the punter gets wiped out, R won’t have a good idea where the ball goes as his first priority is to officiate the hit and unpiling, but the deep wings have a very rough guess if they need to). ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gridiron-football-officials-measure-where-the-ball-went-out-of-bounds-on-a-punt-t/981392/3 "2023-03-20T05:27:31Z")
You can see this on TV as the F or S spots the ball. What we don’t see on TV is the R. IIRC if you watch the F or S closely as they are running, which is shown on the TV, you’ll see they are looking at the R who is far out of the TV screen. When they align with R’s line of sight to where the punt landed, the F or S stops and puts their hand up and turns to face the field, and marks where the new line of scrimmage is. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gridiron-football-officials-measure-where-the-ball-went-out-of-bounds-on-a-punt-t/981392/4 "2023-03-20T15:44:53Z")
I had always wondered this. I learned something today! ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gridiron-football-officials-measure-where-the-ball-went-out-of-bounds-on-a-punt-t/981392/5 "2023-03-22T01:20:24Z")
I got to do this back when I was officiating high school ball. It’s fun, like doing a magic trick. Officiating punts was one of the most interesting bits of refereeing. You have to know some really obscure rules and be prepared for absolutely bonkers play. Before I had to quit, I was able to do some games as the back judge, who covers the return man. I had to get a second beanbag because you have to mark where a punt ends and have one in case there’s a muff or fumble later.