Chain crew members Ed Tinder and Steve Taylor have been a team on Colts’ sideline for 25 years

As members of the chain crew for the Indianapolis Colts, Ed Tinder, left, and Steve Taylor usually keep a calm and impartial approach at home games. But their joy for the Colts showed in this photo that was taken at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis after the Colts defeated the New England Patriots in the American Football Conference championship game in January of 2007. (Submitted photo)

By John Shaughnessy

Even when he’s within inches of quarterback Peyton Manning and head coach Tony Dungy, Ed Tinder constantly strives to stay calm, focused and professional as he works along the sidelines at the Indianapolis Colts’ home games.

Tinder has kept that detached approach during nearly all the moments of the 25 seasons that he—the executive director of the Catholic Youth Organization in Indianapolis—has worked as a member of the chain crew for Colts’ home games.

Of course, there was that one, very visible, very notable exception to staying calm and impartial.

It happened when Colts’ running back Joseph Addai scored what would be the game-winning touchdown near the end of the American Football Conference championship game against the New England Patriots in January of 2007—the game that sent the Colts onward to their Super Bowl victory that year.

“You can’t get caught up in the emotional ebb and flow of the game. You have a job to do so the game can be carried out in an efficient manner,” Tinder says matter-of-factly. “I keep a poker face. I do not hear the crowd. I never get emotional one bit, but ...”

Tinder’s poker face suddenly gives way to a huge smile when he finishes that “but”: “When [Joseph] Addai crossed that goal line, I jumped up. Tears came to my eyes. I became uncharacteristically a fan in that moment. It was the greatest game ever played in Indianapolis.”

A great place to watch a game

Give Tinder forgiveness for his one understandable lapse of impartiality. Then try to imagine the perspective that Tinder and a fellow southside Indianapolis Catholic, Steve Taylor, have as members of the Colts’ chain crew.

“You’re elbow to elbow with players and coaches,” says Taylor, a member of St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis, who keeps the back stake on the 10-yard, first-down chain. “You listen to strategy and motivation, and how they encourage each other and complain to officials. It’s just awesome. It gives me goose bumps.”

Tinder agrees.

“It’s a pretty attractive position to a lot of people,” acknowledges Tinder, the coordinator of the chain crew. “They see it as the ideal spot to watch a football game. Growing up, I couldn’t have imagined watching NFL games from the sidelines.”

The opportunity arose for Tinder and Taylor shortly before the Colts began their first season in Indianapolis in 1984.

A longtime official of high school and college football games, Tinder received a phone call from the head of the Indiana Football Officials Association, asking him if he wanted to be part of the crew that would be responsible for the down marker and the first-down chains for Colts’ home games.

Tinder actually had to think it over before agreeing. He was concerned about conflicts because CYO plays football games on Sundays. He eventually said yes, but he finds a replacement for the Colts’ games when there’s a conflict with CYO championship games.

“I do the down marker. Every play, I keep the down, the distance and the yard line we’re on,” says Tinder, a member of St. Jude Parish in Indianapolis. Then he makes another statement that would seem unbelievable to most fans: “You can’t watch the game.”

At least you can’t watch the game like a fan unless you want to risk ending up in the hospital or—far worse, according to Tinder—having Peyton Manning or another player end up in the hospital.

Tinder’s second worst nightmare involves Manning running toward the sidelines and looking for a receiver downfield as a couple of crazed, hulking defenders close in on him.

“You have to keep your eyes on the action in front of you,” Tinder says. “If you look downfield to where he throws the ball, you can get hurt. Over the years, there have been guys injured. One guy was hit, he went flying, his glasses got knocked off and his tooth was chipped.”

Tinder’s worst nightmare would send shivers down the spines of Colts’ fans: “Imagine Peyton Manning running to the sidelines, getting tangled up in the chains and getting hurt because we were looking downfield and not doing our jobs. We’d have to move out of town.”

In the midst of the action

The best case scenario for Tinder, Taylor and the other members of the chain crew is to be so good, so efficient that no one ever notices them. Yet that doesn’t mean that Tinder hasn’t noticed the actions of the Colts’ players and coaches who swirl around him on Sundays.

“You don’t really get to know the players and the coaches, but you get a sense of what is in their hearts,” Tinder says. “These players and coaches are a bunch of good guys. There are people in that organization who make it what it is. [Head coach] Tony Dungy and [president] Bill Polian are the best.

“Every team has a personality. I’ve seen some good ones and some bad ones. The state of Indiana can be proud of this team. It comes from the top down. It comes from the people [that] Dungy and Polian bring in. The character of people marks high with them.”

The experience has left its mark on Tinder, too. It’s given the former college football player and the former head high school football coach some interesting perspectives and interactions.

His favorite memory involves the 2007 AFC championship game.

“It was after the game,” he recalls. “Almost everybody had left, but we didn’t want to leave. They were about to turn out the lights, and we were still standing there on the field.”

Another favorite memory involves a small moment with Addai, the Colts’ starting running back.

“Last year, I had a bad cough for two home games in a row,” Tinder says, smiling again. “At one point during the second game, I coughed. Joseph Addai was standing nearby and he said, ‘You still have that cough. You should see a doctor about that.’ ”

It was one of the rare times Tinder didn’t mind being noticed on the sidelines.

“It’s all very cool,” he says. †