Referee signals from Super Bowl III

Tommy Bell everyone. Can you guess what he is signalling?

I guess everyone was a white hat back then. Probably helped with the egos. Here's an article about Tommy.

[JJ]

Ummm...this is a baseball blog....

JJ

[Welpe]

Originally Posted by JJ

Ummm...this is a baseball blog....

JJ

Well technically it's a forum.

Moved to Football.

[JRutledge]

So glad things have gotten more standardized and professional. I have no idea what that was.

Peace

[Altor]

Here's my guess...

NY 7 4–5 Johnson 32 punt, Brown fair catch. Play nullified by offsetting penalties, illegal procedure against New York and roughing the kicker against Baltimore.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sport...-iii-plays.htm

[HLin NC]

Watch some of those old, old games on YouTube. They run around like crazed court jesters, jump into piles, run towards the goal while they signal, dramatic TD signals, etc.

Definitely less hurried looking with today's mechanics.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Altor

Here's my guess...

NY 7 4–5 Johnson 32 punt, Brown fair catch. Play nullified by offsetting penalties, illegal procedure against New York and roughing the kicker against Baltimore.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sport...-iii-plays.htm

You could gather the same thing without benefit of the play record. The illegal procedure must've been for formation. It had to be a scrimmage play, since that was the only way a roughing-the-kicker call could be produced*; there was at that time no separate running-into-the-kicker call, but the usual practice was to signal personal foul, then the type of personal foul, regardless. Scrimmage kicks were the most likely situation for illegal formation to occur, as line players of team A wanted maximum separation from their opponents, whether to protect the kicker or to get into coverage downfield; the pro rule for position on the line hadn't yet been changed to conform to NCAA's & Fed's easier-to-administer snapper's-waist landmark, and a kicking team might be flagged for cheating back to the same degree they may have been allowed to on previous kick plays or in previous games.

There were no microphones on officials, so they were much more demonstrative than now. IIRC, it was considered a home game for the AFL team, so the referee wore a white hat as AFL officials were doing that season, while the NFL still had a black hat on their referees. The NFL later adopted the AFL's white-hatted style. Previously AFL refs had red caps.

* You could still kick following a change of possession, but good luck drawing a roughing call then!