My day with the Dragons' chain crew

Jim Baumbach

March 31, 2008

Be safe.

Whatever you do, be safe.

The head linesman stressed that as he spoke to the five of us on the "chain crew" behind closed doors before yesterday's Dragons game against the Dallas Desperados.

"Listen, guys, this is a second job for every one of us," Kelly Saalfeld said. "We all need to go to work tomorrow. Give me hustle, but stay out of the players' way as much as possible."

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If you're anything like me, when you think of the chain crew at a football game, you picture a few guys standing on the sideline holding the ends of the chain and the down marker. Their job, essentially, is to move the chains with each first down.

Except for the occasional pass to the sideline, the job sounds easy and harmless, right?

Ha.

Not in the Arena Football League.

There's one small detail in this league that makes the job of the chain crew far more difficult than in the NFL. Here, there is no sideline. Instead, a 4-foot wall encloses the football field.

So what does the chain crew do?

"You run, run, and run," Andy Jacklin, 48, of Westbury, said.

Here's how it works:

When a play is taking place, you stand behind the end zone on a small strip of turf that's inside the field's fence, but isn't in play. When the officials whistle the play dead, you watch for the head linesman. He's the guy who will give you the signal what to do.

And you better keep your eyes on him, because once he signals, you might only have 15 seconds - maybe 20 - to get on the field, move the chains and get off the field - and out of harm's way.

He will give you one of two signals.

If he waves, it's a first down and everyone sprints. Two people grab the ends of the chain and another person grabs "the box," which is what they call the sign that tells you what down it is.

If he points, it's not a first down. So only the guy who is responsible for "the box" runs out to change the down marker.

Thankfully, my experienced teammates running with me helped me not embarrass myself (too much). Jacklin is a seven-year vet, and Steve DeLillo, 26, of Levittown, and Jason Block, 35, of Lake Ronkonkoma, have done it since the Dragons came in 2001. (The prerequisite is that you're a licensed high school official.)

You do constantly run, like Jacklin said. I was sweating by the second quarter and looking for a breather by the fourth. But you get used to the running.

The hardest part of the job is avoiding the players running off the field, making sure the 8-foot pole you're carrying doesn't poke them in the gut. Or making sure you don't trip anyone - or yourself - with the chain. Or - and this is hands-down the worst part - avoiding the spit from the players who are on the bench.

The guys warned me about this, and I experienced it for myself. The Desperados had the ball late, and they were rushing to kill time. I was responsible for the box in the second half, I ran out there past the benches several times to adjust the marker.

When you're this close to the action, you witness everything: the barking at the officials, the players' trash talking, the "bang" of the hits, the calls from the quarterback at the line of scrimmage. It's a really cool up-close look at the game.

But when you run down the sideline and see multiple wads of spit coming from the sideline, well, that's a bit much.

"Now," DeLillo said, "you've experienced everything."