Everybody seems to be saying it
In the second quarter of the Arizona Cardinals’ road game against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3, FOX Sports color analyst Adam Amin stated on a second-down play, “Looking for McBride. He is almost like an extension of the run game as Ji’Ayir Brown brings him down near the line to gain.”
Come again? The what? Line to what? Line to gain?
Didn’t he mean just shy of getting the first down? The first down marker? Just shy of moving the sticks? Of moving the chains?
But that’s not what he said. And that’s not what a lot of television analysts are saying these days. They are saying that the first down marker is the line to gain.
Where the heck is this coming from, and what the hell is the “line to gain?”
To clarify, the “line to gain” is the “first down marker.” They are the same thing. It is that in just the past few seasons, line to gain has been getting its due with a lot of usage. And if you pay attention, in today’s game, it is being said almost every American Football game, whether it is college, professional football, or the local high school game.
The fact is, “line to gain” is in the rule book and always has been.
From Soccer to Rugby to American Football
It is just one of those things that was never used to describe any aspect of the game until now. Just like the center position. In the NFL rulebook, “center” is not used but described the position as the “snapper.” That is why on punts, field goal attempts, drop kicks, and PATs, the guy who shoots the ball to the holder is called the “long snapper.” At all times, this position is “the snapper.” The word “center” was brought over from rugby and conveniently used. Everyone calls the guy who begins each play the center so much that we all use it.
Another example is the annual college draft in which hundreds of young men are chosen by NFL clubs in reverse order of how they finished the following season, with the league champion selecting dead last. This is to enhance parity among all of its teams. If the same four or five teams win the title each year, then fans become bored and complacent. Likewise, if the bottom four or five clubs lose almost every game each year, fans quit coming to games.
The draft, held in April, helps the bottom third of teams get better. But the process is not called “the NFL draft.” Its official title is the “Annual Player Selection Meeting.” However, everyone calls it “the draft,” and so we go with it.
Yet another example of aspects that are incorrectly described is when the center, or snapper, gets the ball to the quarterback; we refer to that as a “hike” or a “snap.” Both are sorta kinda correct. But the true verbiage is the center “passes” the ball to the signalcaller. The snap from the center to the quarterback is a “backward pass.”
American Football came from rugby, and in the beginning stages, the originator of the game, Walter Camp, used terminology that was already familiar to him when he developed how the game should be played. Many positions were the same or very similar. Many features on the playing field were the same or comparable. And since the game of rugby was derived from soccer, that sport’s terminology was also passed along.
From soccer, American Football stole tackle, interception, kickoff, goal line, turnover, referee, and punt, to name a few. It is why the official game time is on the wrist of a game official still today. Soccer plays 11-a-side, and what’s this? So does American Football.
So, when rugby became its own game, it simply used things that were familiar. And then, when American Football was being formulated, it used terms, conditions, rules, equipment, and field markings that were already in place. As the decades rolled along, more and more rules were altered or added that molded American Football into its own sport. Today, American Football has very little resemblance to its father sport, rugby, and even less resemblance to its grandfather sport of soccer.
In North America, it is called soccer. In almost every other part of the globe, the sport is called “football.” Why? Answer: it always has been.
The rules of soccer were formulated in 1863 with an organization based in England called “Association Football.” The rules of rugby were written in 1868 under the name “Rugby Football.” In 1880, the rules of “American Football” were drawn up by Camp. “Gaelic Football” rules were placed on paper in 1885 whereas “Canadian Football” was conceived in 1903.
All of these off-shoot sports called their sport “football” after the sport of football. Clear?
Origins of “Line to Gain”
Let’s get back to this “line to gain” propaganda.
The origins of American Football, Camp gave each offense 15 plays to drive the field and score. The problem was, offenses couldn’t score much less get anywhere. So, teams were either giving up the ball without gaining much ground, or both offensive units just weren’t getting close to getting points.
Camp then changed the format.
In sports like basketball, hockey, water polo, and lacrosse, as long as the offense has the ball or puck, they maintain control until they score or turn the playing instrument over to the other team. For American Football, Camp gave the offense a set of “downs” and a distance to pursue to gain a new set of downs. In this system, no matter what happened on first down, the offense maintained possession. It was unlike any other sport.
Camp’s new rules made it three downs to achieve five yards. Is this where the “line to gain” comes in? Hold on, hold on – it’s a slow reveal, but be patient.
At the time, there were only three game officials. The head guy was called the referee, just like today. That is a soccer and rugby term. The referee would place a white handkerchief down on the playing field after he had stepped off five yards. Then, one team’s offense would take their first down play and so on until they got beyond the handkerchief, and a new set of downs was achieved, or they failed, and the other team took possession.
Did you know?
At the beginning stages of American Football, each team was given possession and 15 plays to score. Walter Camp changed this to a set of three plays to make five yards, and then a new possession if the required yardage was met. Camp called each play a “down” because the player with the ball was required to put the ball down on the ground immediately after each play.
Yes, the obvious here is the usage of a flimsy piece of cloth, but it is what was used. The wind would become an issue, and so would unruly players who would attempt to move the white hanky either up or back to suit their needs. And to make things worse, fans were able to stand along both sidelines. Every spectator had a handkerchief in their pocket.
Camp came up with another idea. He invented the “line to gain” marker.
In Camp’s new game of American Football, teams now had to reach a point on the field that would enable them to maintain possession by gaining a certain number of yards and receiving a new set of downs. Which, in turn, moved their offense down the field closer to their opponent’s goal line.
In American Football, the “line to gain” was the point on the field where the offense must advance in order to get another set of downs.
A more exacting explanation may be this: the imaginary “line” in which a team may get a fresh set of downs is “to gain” five yards at this spot. Short version: “Line to gain.”
It is essentially the first down marker.
Camp fashioned a round rod that replaced the hanky and had someone hold it during games. After the referee stepped off five yards, the person holding the rod would place it on the ground along the sideline. When an offense would cross the “line to gain” marker, the rod would be moved to a new position, marking where the new first down was located.
The “line to gain” marker was the precursor to the chain crew.
At the time, this marker wasn’t standardized. Sometimes it was a round rod, painted or not painted. Oftentimes, it was a piece of 2×4 lumber that somebody had at their home and brought just for this purpose. Tall, short, round, square, wood, metal, or a tree branch – they all served the same purpose.
The first playing fields were striped from sideline to sideline in 1882 in five-yard increments. Today, fields are still striped every five yards, but numbered yard markers only appear every 10 yards. Several college fields still number every five yards, such as Tiger Stadium, home of the LSU Tigers.
Changes to the Game
When the forward pass became legal in 1906, it soon became too easy to gain five yards. On February 3, 1912, the U.S. college football rules committee rules were ratified to change from three downs to four, and from five yards to 10.
That same year, other changes shortened the playing field from the rugby size of 110 yards to 100 yards, removed the 20-yard maximum reception limit to unlimited, and added 10-yard end zones.
The new size required a new device. A chain or rope was cut 10 yards long and attached to two poles. A third device was invented, which is called “the box.” This third stick displays the down. The other two sticks measure the length to gain a first down. The “rear rod” marks where the new first down is. Then the chain is stretched out taut to which the “forward rod” marks where the next first down lies.
The “line to gain” marker and the “forward rod” are the same tool. Both show where the line is to gain another set of downs and to obtain a first down.
The first marker to display this aspect as the new sport of American Football was developing was the “line to gain” marker. The chain crew, or chain gang, replaced the need for the “line of gain” marker because it displayed a lot more information, such as the original spot, what down each play is, and where the offense must travel in order to gain another first down.
If an offense advances the football to the “line to gain” in their set of downs, they are awarded an additional first down, keep possession, and can continue their drive.
In Camp’s description of the rules of college football, in which the distance and down were changed, he described how a team can achieve a first down by gaining a “line to gain.”
Just like “snapper” is the authorized name for “center” and the “Annual Player Selection Meeting” is the endorsed moniker for the “NFL draft”, the “first down marker” is used more often, but “line to gain” is the official name.
Even though this description has always been in the rule book, it is only recently that television commentators have been using it.
Term Brought to TV Audiences
The first usage is attributed to when Sportvision pioneered the yellow first-down line that TV viewers could only see. This debuted on ESPN in 1998. Sportvision coined the term “line to gain a first down.”
In the NFL Football Operations handbook, it states: “The line to gain is the spot 10 yards downfield from where the ball is spotted for an offense’s first down.”
The yellow line for the TV audience blew everybody away when it first came out. It remains one of the foundational enhancements that improve the viewing experience. A blue line followed, which displayed the original line of scrimmage just like the “rear rod” does. Later, an arrow and a down/distance display can be seen on the screen.
The phrase “line to gain” is used by quite a few TV announcers and commentators today. Maybe you just didn’t notice.
The announcing team of John Madden and Pat Summerall was hired by FOX Sports beginning in the 1994 season. Once the Sportvision line was introduced four years later, the pair began using the term “line to gain” to explain the concept of the first down marker clearly to viewers. As the years rolled along, more commentators slowly picked up the jargon. If you have ever watched a telecast with Troy Aikman as the color analyst, he says “line to gain” every game.
By using the phrase “line to gain” consistently, TV announcers are able to assist viewers of the game in understanding the pivotal point on the playing field that determines if an offensive unit will get another chance to continue their drive.
In the 1880s, Walter Camp came up with the “line to gain.” It took the technology of a yellow line to bring that term into the public’s eye. And now, we are just learning to use the phrase Camp invented.
Category: General Sports
