San Angelo, Texas--The phrase "moving the chains" is a familiar one
to football fans, but veteran official Richard Garza wants to tweak
that concept just a little bit.
"This wasn't something that came overnight," Richard Garza states.
Instead of the traditional metal chains referees use, Garza has invented a different instrument used to measure yardage.
"It's a strap and the strap will be normally 10 yards or possibly 10 yards and 4 inches, but its very visible and its got the actual yardage on a strap, its got 10 yards marked visible so everybody can see exactly how much yards they need exactly down to the inch," Garza explains.
The model also includes a different down marker to make a player's trip out of bounds less hazardous.
"If they make contact with this standard, it's going to collapse for safety, it has a break right here as you can see and it has a stop below it."
As for the question of how will it be known where to begin the measurements? Well, he's got that covered too.
"The actual 10 yards will start here, from pointer to pointer, so the down box will be here and then the standard will be here so the actual 10 yards will start at this point and if they step on it that's fine because they've got velcro and it justs peels off," Garza says.
With the recent moves from the NFL, down to the high school and pee wee levels towards making football more safe, Garza believes his invention will be valuable.
