Opinions on this........

[Ed Hickland]

Originally Posted by With_Two_Flakes

Zip Ties.
Every chain set of the teams I work has one of my (bright yellow) zip ties at its midpoint, easier to see than tape that gets dirty over time. So I can see where the down box is in comparison with the ziptie and know whether a 5yd penalty (eg offside) on the D gives us a 1st down or not. When the crew go round the horn with the down, HL adds the distance so that the white hat will know it too.
We try to stick to a set vocabulary for distance - inches, short, five, long, ten, two stakes. Very occasionally might use other exact distances, 15, 20 or 25, etc.

I also keep a black or white zip tie with me for repairing the chains if they break. I keep one inside the band of each of my hats, that way I never have to remember to take one out on the field - if I remember to wear a hat, I've got one with me. I've needed it several times so far in my career.

Backup whistle.
I always make sure I got two of everything out there with me - and that includes a whistle. Where do you put all this stuff? That's why officials pants have 4 pockets.

Reading glasses
Well in my case, I've worn regular glasses since I was a kid. Now I'm old, I get to wear varifocals.

I like the idea of the zip tie.

My crew toolbag has extra clips, reading glasses and quick links -- for broken chains.

Quick links are great and we have different sizes for the different chains we encounter. Had a big playoff game where the chain broke away from the stake which usually requires a massive tape job and quite a few minutes. We took a big quick link hooked it to the stake and the first link of the chain in less than a minute.