Interesting response to a touchdown
 

WHO TV - Des Moines: Sports - Iowa Sports, Sound Off and Scores for Central Iowa, Des Moines, West Des Moines, Ames, Ankeny, Clive, Indianola, Marshalltown, Norwalk, Urbandale and Windsor Heights.


Take a quick gander at this video, about 40 seconds long. Hopefully the above address will help you find it. If it doesn't, leave a note and I'll try again.

The game is an Iowa 4A state playoff game between two metro Des Moines schools at a neutral field. The home team was Dowling, and they supplied the chain crew. While not mentioned, the exuberant 'official' is probably a member of the chain crew. I attended a game in which this crew worked as the chain crew, they were introduced as Dowling grads and they were all dressed like the officials, with the exception that the game crew wore short sleeves while the chain crew wore long sleeves.

I think if I were a linesman, and I saw this kind of response out of the chain crew, I would have a little discussion with them.

Indeed.

"For the next two hours, you are part of the officiating crew. Your cheering privileges have been revoked. Work with me here."

With players from the team on the other sideline, I always tell them that I can't guarantee their safety if they mouth off or cheer for their team while in the midst of their opponents. :)

The solution seems rather obvious. Before you have any discussion with these guys there should be an absolute ban on their dressing in an officials uniform. They can dress how ever they like EXCEPT in an officials uniform.

After that's decided, they need to understand about how to behave when assisting game mamagement by working the chains.

Amen ajmc - there is NO WAY I would allow them to work the chains dressed like that.

He's be getting replaced immediately if during a game that I was CC or WH.

Absolutely.

I'd have no problem with them wearing the knickers and socks, but not the shirt.

As for the guy celebrating with the players and also BEING ON THE FIELD OF PLAY, I'd turf him off the crew instantly and ask for a replacement.

Wow, that was rediculous! Why would the chain crew where full dress like that anyway? NCAA and NFL will have knickers, but they wear the orange pullovers on top.

I'd definitely have a good chat with him, but chances are you wouldn't see it.

Just to note, the REAL crew is also in long sleeves. You can see the LMs arms when he signals the TD. If it is the LM - it is just speculation that this was a member of the chain crew, and there is no indication on the video of the chain anywhere.

Image from the Dowling Catholic HS website showing what appears to be a home game and chain crew seems appropriately dressed:

http://www.dowlingcatholic.org/Porta...-Football3.gif

jjrye22:

In the video provided, you are correct. In my OP, I was referring to a game I saw prior to this one which had the same chain crew wearing long sleeves, whereas the officiating crew was in short sleeves for the night, which in Iowa in late October is rare. It was really the only way to differentiate between the groups, looking at them from a distance. You are correct that in this video, both groups were wearing long sleeves, making the distinction between them all the more difficult.

Hope that clears up any confusion.

Did this happen on Halloween?

That might explain it.

I saw an R "give me five" to the two return guys prior to a KO after a touchdown by the opponent. Do you all think that looks OK?

I found it a little odd. :o

Pardon my drifting a little bit, but several years ago, Hamilton College, near Rome, NY, provided chain crews from the various fraternities, who were very serious as well as competent in operating the chains.

Each fraternity decided how they would dress. One game they all wore tuxedos, another they were dressed, in full costumes, as the 3 little pigs. There seemed to be as much anticipation about how the chain crew might appear, as the game itself.

I would imagine, or at least hope, that tradition continues.

From a Sports Illustrated 1984 story re the Hamilton College chain gang:


SIDESHOW FOR A CHAIN GANG

Hamilton College, a Division III school in upstate New York, finished its football season with a gratifying 6-1-1 record, its first winning year since 1967. But what followers of the Continentals may remember even longer is the "chain gang," three puckish students who operated the first-down chain and the down marker at Hamilton's home games. Seniors Mark Isaf and Dave Weiner, who handled the 10-yard chain, and Larry Kollath, who held the marker, livened things up by wearing oddball costumes. As the flow of action moved back and forth, there they were on the sidelines—in gorilla suits at one game, in scuba equipment at another, in drag, in real chain-gang prisoners' stripes and, finally, for Hamilton's season-ending 10-3 upset of traditional rival Union, in tailcoats.

Isaf, Weiner and Kollath, all varsity athletes (Isaf plays lacrosse and basketball, Weiner baseball and Kollath basketball), paid strict attention to their duties during games but still had a lot of fun. "No matter where we were," Isaf said, "Dave and I always seemed to be 10 yards apart." Weiner said, "Ice and I have a good relationship, but Larry kept coming between us."

THAT'S funny.