Cheaters!

[jchamp]

Originally Posted by Suudy

I've never had actual cheating by teams, but by the chain crew. I posted on this before, but I had the chain crew set the chains at the back of the ball for the home team, and the front of the ball for the away team.

Varsity & JV/Freshman chain crews and clock operators here (Southern Nevada) are an auxiliary crew of regular officials. In fact, usually when we have a Thursday night JV/Freshman double-header, we just swap out crews between the two games.
We haven't had visiting coaches complain about cheating chain crews, and since most coaches know we're "off-duty" officials, we occasionally get them asking us about calls. The worst problem I had was someone insisting that the umpire was giving his team an unfair spot on short yardage and demanded that I (holding the box) make the correction. I simply informed him he was addressing his complaint to the wrong person.
I did catch chain crew in a youth game cheating. After everything was set, the LTG stake holder started pulling the rear stake really subtle-like, which normally wouldn't have been noticed, except that my crew also likes to spot balls right on the 5-yard lines whenever it's close and practical. When we start second down and the LTG has moved 6 feet from the 5-yard mark where he started, the problem is quite obvious.