How We Get The Yellow Line
If good looks was a minute/ You know that you could've been an hour- Smokey Robinson, 'The Way You Do The Things You Do'
America’s national holiday of over-consumption, the Super Bowl, is this Sunday. I know, it snuck up on you. What has made watching televised football so much more entertaining over the last few years is the yellow first-down ‘line’ we see. The NFL may have ended the ‘You Make The Call’ ads I loved, but the yellow line brings back that spirited debate of on-the-field calls which coaches’ challenges only ruin. Before the yellow line, my father and I would often yell “Terrible spot!” at the television when Walter Payton or Neil Anderson came up short for our beloved Bears. We had no idea, all we knew was the Bears should have got a first down. Now, thanks to the yellow line, we know how bad that spot was. And let me tell you, there aren’t too many bad spots. The line judge and referees do a darn good job.
The yellow-line brings goal-line excitement to every fourth down play. I had no idea all the technology that went on behind the scenes to make that ‘line’ visible. Chalk it up to that analogy of graceful swans on a pond. Lots of action going on behind the scenes.
New favorite useless job not on my resume- Yellow ‘line’ yellower. Keep up the good work! 
O'Hare Arpt., IL
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