Question about that ten yard chain thingy they use in pro football to determine first downs

I get the idea that the chain thingy is brought out to determine whether the football has been brought far enough forward to warrant a first down.

What I don't get is why they bother using it?

I mean, the back of the chain is set up at the previous end of down location when they made their last first down.

However, to do any measuring with the chain thingy, they have to run the sonofabitch out into the middle of the field.

Which means that the ass end of the chain thingy is no longer firmly rooted in place - it's being run out.

So the question is - if they can determine where exactly the ass end of the chain thingy goes when they run it out midfield, then it stands to reason - to this engineer, anyway - that they should just as easily be able to determine where the front of the chain thingy should go. In which case, they don't need the chain thingy at all.

To me, it just seems like so much bullshit designed - like Republican legislation - to look like its doing something, while actually only adding unnecessary expense and oversight and contributing nothing of any real value.

Then, when the chain guys run out on the field, the official puts the marker on that same yard line, and thus, the chain is as close as possible to its original position.

Strange that a league that uses instant replay technology still uses something as archaic as this though.

So it's not only archaic, it's unnecessary.

I think they should just get really sloppy, and measure shit to a tolerance of plus/minus 2.5 yards.

Since they have the video yellow first down line technology down so well, why not just go with that?

edit - I take it back, they just gave NY a first down when the yellow line clearly showed the ball 7 pixels short.