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Good replies gentlemen. Yes, I agree it's a lot to do, and frankly, it may look a little weird. And yes, Mark I see your point as well. In my original reply I mentioned these mechanics came as recommendations from our mechanics committee. Over the years (before I was an official) they tried various things and found what did and didn't work. They landed on a set of mechanics that I was trained on. To Marks question (which is valid) it's not difficult at all to find out which way an official is rolling because we give and look for signals from each other and talk about in pre-game even though we work every week together.
Some veteran officials don't like this at all. I recall a NCAA linesman saying "WHAAAAT?" in one of the meetings. Any way, my linesman and me came up together as cadets and were asked by the same Referee to be on a crew together. So we were taught to use these when we were originally trained and have been using them ever since. Again, I'm sure it definitely looks and sounds weird but for us it works. The point is we're always in active communication on every play so we're actively looking for signals from the other guy. I'm not trying to "sell" the concept per-se just sharing what happens to work for us.
Great (valid) questions.
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