The spectators quickly proved to be a major hindrance to the game. Not only were they in great danger themselves, but they frequently spoiled the workings of a beautiful play by shouting out to a favored player the location of the man he pursued. Therefore, spectators were banned.

At approximately eleven twenty, the referees come out wearing bright red and yellow striped coveralls and glow-yellow caps. They carry large flashlights. Each one has a whistle and a portable amplifier permitting him to make himself heard over a three square block area. To communicate amongst themselves, the refs are equipped with belt-packed two-way transmitters, miniature ear-inserted receivers and throat mikes. They use the transmitters to coordinate reconvening the players at the end of each play, and also to receive details of the forthcoming play as broadcast over a specially guarded hush channel by the quarterback’s referee, who sits in on the huddle.

There are thirteen referees, one for each player, paired by lottery the week prior to the game. At this moment, at the other end of the playing area, another thirteen referees are matching themselves up with their appropriate Minutemen. Since stealth is such a major factor in football, there are eight additional referees scattered around the playing area. If a play involves a planned deceptive run and hide, the ball carrier’s regular referee will drop his coverage once the deception starts, and one or more of the eight unassigned referees will pick it up, but from a point of concealment. Naturally, if a deception is a spur-of-the-moment occurrence, the ball carrier’s assigned referee will have no choice but to follow along.

A new squad of referees will replace this one at the beginning of the second quarter.

The cameramen trail out next. Here also, one is assigned exclusively to each player. In addition, one cameraman covers each goalyard, and twelve roam about at will shooting provocative sidelights and overall play action. The cameramen are dressed in international orange coveralls. They wield fist-sized cameras with dyno-rotating lens turrets, each lens as big as the camera itself. They wear a power pack on their back, its single pencil-thick cable attached to an automatic inertial take-up and play-out reel so they always have just as much slack as they need, no more. Their light bulb-shaped helmets are jam-packed with the microwave gear necessary for sending out their TV signals and receiving instructions from the control room. Their focusing goggles are etched with prismatic sights operated by imperceptible movements of their pupils. A cable runs from their goggles to their cameras, permitting them to focus their cameras on an object merely by looking at it. They have special infrared attachments for use at night.

A directional, rotating pickup mike, gyroscopically synchronized to always point in the same direction as their camera, is mounted to a swivel on top of their helmet. The control room monitors the quarterback’s calls through these mikes and relays the cameramen their shooting instructions.