Why do football referees repeat the call?

[acegator]

Why do football referees repeat the penalty call? First they do it with signals then they do it with the signals and words. Why not just make one call with the words and signals at the same time?

[jcp]

I may be wrong but I always thought the first signal was for the bench so they could accept or decline...

[g8tr96]

[Gatorrick22]

Originally Posted by jcp

I may be wrong but I always thought the first signal was for the bench so they could accept or decline...

This is what I thought too.

But honestly, it's so that I can see it on TV and say it out loud to my girlfriend so she'd be impressed that I new the penalty before they said it aloud.

[GatorJeff]

Because they have to tell us the offending player was on the play. If they didn't have to do that, there'd be no accountability for the officials.

Actually, the first call is indeed for the benefit of the coaches to make the decision on acceptance or declination.

[TheGator]

That is correct. The first signal is a preliminary signal. Then the officials sort out penalty enforcement, accepting, declining and so forth. The second is to announce to the crowd and give the official signal.

[cocodrilo]

Once when the preliminary signal was given to the LSU bench, Les Miles had to call time out to decide whether to accept or decline.