Cleveland Browns: What constitutes a first down?
By Joel W. Cade
How NFL chain gangs really work
A chain gang usually consists of 7 people. Yes, 7! But fans are usually only familiar with 3. There are two people to hold the stakes known as rodmen. One operates the down box. One runs the clip on the chain. Another handles the little red mat on the ground that marks the line to gain. The other two remaining members are an auxiliary crew on the other sideline running a down box and red mat. During NFL games, there is another member who runs a mat that indicates where the drive started (used to make those cool lines on the TV screen).
The use of chain gangs pre-dates the NFL. The first mention of chain gang appeared in the 1906 Spalding’s Official Foot Ball Guide. Mark Shultz of footballzebras.com quotes the guide as saying,
"“To assist in measuring the progress of the ball, it is desirable to provide two light poles about six feet in length, connected at their lower ends by stout cord or chain 10 yards in length.”"
Fascinating that the “light poles” at the end of the chain were there to assist in helping the officials measure. The salient point is that the chains themselves were the standard by which the measurement occurred. The light posts themselves (now modern-day sticks) had no bearing on the official measurement.
But as things evolve, so did the use of the chain. Eventually, a marker was added in the middle of the chain to help with penalty enforcement (more on this later). The poles were adapted to what is used today with the bright orange color to help everyone see where the line to gain lies. These chain gangs have become normalized as the standard method for marking the line to gain. They have their own independent history.
Over the years, the use of the chain gang became a part of the pomp and circumstance of the NFL game. It also began to lose its basic functionality as a measuring tool. Officials began using other methods (think “new math” as opposed to the math we all learned) to gauge whether teams were able to make the line to gain. As a result, other adaptations occurred as well, like how to spot first downs.