Ask Sam Farmer: What about receivers seeking help and the chain gang?

Have a question about the NFL? Ask Times NFL writer Sam Farmer, and he will answer as many as he can online and in the Sunday editions of the newspaper throughout the season. Email questions to: sam.farmer@latimes.com

Why does the receiver point to the line judge before the ball is snapped? Are officials obligated to tell them if they’re lined up offsides? Aren’t they both looking at the same line of scrimmage?

Marc McKinney

Doylestown, Pa.

Farmer: It does seem a little strange that a receiver would need to check with an official on the sideline to make sure he’s lined up properly, seeing as they both have similar perspectives on the line of scrimmage.

But CBS officiating expert Mike Carey, a retired NFL referee, said it’s fairly common for receivers, even experienced ones, to be slightly out of position.

“It’s not so much that he can’t calibrate where the line of scrimmage is,” Carey said. “It’s that he’s figuring out where his defender is, trying to get the snap count, maybe the quarterback is audibilizing, so [looking to the official] is just an easy way to check.”

But not everyone thinks that’s such a good idea. Hall of Fame receiver James Lofton, for one, is staunchly against it.

“When I was coaching, I didn’t want my receivers looking over to the officials,” Lofton said. “I taught the split end to put his front foot where the center’s foot was. And I taught the flanker, who’s just off the line of scrimmage, to put his front foot on the tight end’s back foot.

“The reason why I didn’t want them looking over to the official was because if you get in that habit, and let’s say you’re rushing to the line of scrimmage, you look over to the sideline and now you don’t see the defense moving. The corner may be coming up from six yards to quick jam you while you look to the side. The safety may be shifting. Your focus should be on the field.”

By Lofton’s estimate, 90% of the coaches in the NFL don’t advise receivers of that small detail.

“It’s poorly coached at the NFL level,” said Lofton, a former San Diego Chargers receivers coach who’s now a lead game analyst for Westwood One radio’s Sunday Night Football coverage. “You see it at the collegiate level and the high school level. Going out there and pointing to the official is the silliest thing in the world.”

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What about the chain gang guys? Are they hired by the home team? How much training is involved?

Ralph Miller

Fort Collins, Colo.

Farmer: The three members of the chain crew are hired by the home team. Often, the crew members are local officials who work high school games on Friday nights, so the NFL is a huge step up in every way. Before each game, the head linesman has a meeting with the crew to go over the details of the job.