Marblehead’s Siegel has Super product in refs’ beanbags

If you’ve ever noticed those dark blue bags referees throw onto the field to mark where punts land, or where kicks go out of bounds, you can thank Marblehead’s Carl Siegel for them.At least you can thank him for the version the National Football League officials use today.Actually, what Siegel – a retired local football referee – did was refashion the prototype “beanbag” NFL referees used to use.”And actually,” says Siegel, “it’s not beans in the bag. It’s fishtank gravel.”The problem with the old weighted markers, Siegel said, is that they were only weighted on one end, and refs who looped them over the waistbands or belts of their pants have them constantly fall off.”So I thought, what if I put a small weight on either end of the bag, and put the waist flap in the middle?” Siegel said. “I made some, and I started giving them to guys in the local association, and it branched out from that.”It seemed to catch on, so Siegel sent 120 of them to the NFL’s headquarters in New York and just gave them to the league.”It got so I sold them to the NFL one or two times when the league was running NFL Europe,” Siegel said.”There’s not a big market for it,” says Siegel, who calls this a “hobby” more than a business. “I don’t make a lot of money on it. There’s not a lot of turnover for NFL referees.”Siegel has made the markers for all of the seven on-field referees, the five backups, and the two press box officials slated to work Sunday’s Super Bowl game between the Patriots and New York Giants. The bags, which measure two inches wide and about 8 1/2 inches long, are double stitched with both ends filled with fishtank gravel so either side can flap over a belt or a waistband. They are monogrammed with the Roman numerals for Super Bowl XLVI, and each referee’s number.”For example,” Siegel said, “this year’s referee is John Perry. His number is R132. So that’s what the bag says.”Siegel says he’s been providing the NFL with the bags for more than 25 years, and has made them for at least 15 Super Bowls. He also provides them to college officials, including those from the Atlantic Coast Conference.”And,” he says, “I’m making 150 of them that will be monogrammed for an officials group in Maryland that’s going to have a referee school.”Siegel says that he may have invented the modern beanbag, but he didn’t patent it.”It’s my mistake,” he said, “because it’s since been copied. I saw them in a catalogue a few years ago, saying they were offering the ‘new slim NFL-style beanbags.'”It would have run out with the statute of limitations anyway,” shrugs Siegel. “It’s a novelty.”Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].