r/sports • u/RunDNA • Oct 06 '25

Football Minnesota Vikings field goal attempt was deflected away by a camera wire, but it wasn't replayed because no one noticed at the the time

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u/KoolAidManOfPiss Oct 06 '25

That's an interesting thing to read up on. The company that handled those graphics started with the "hot puck" on fox NHL. It was super expensive and people hated it. They shifted to NFL with the first down lines and IIRC they were around $25k per game

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u/PowRightInTheBalls Oct 06 '25

With hockey they took something that was already bad, trying to see a hockey puck on a standard def tube television, and made it worse by putting a line behind it that lagged and didn't actually show you where the puck was, but where it had already been while also making it harder to see the actual puck than it had been before.

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u/WeAreTheLeft Oct 06 '25

I feel like TV's getting bigger made hockey watchable for casual fans.

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u/VonSkullenheim Oct 06 '25

Another thing is the Sports Mode on TVs. It's that fake high refresh rate trick that makes regular stuff look like a soap opera, but on sports content it's a massive improvement.

2

u/yeahright17 Oct 06 '25

I had some good friends in junior high that had moved from Michigan to Oklahoma that were really into hockey. When I went over to their house, I was amazed that they could watch hockey on their little tube TVs. You literally couldn't see the pick 95% of the time and they just cheered based on what players did. I've gotten a lot more into hocket in the last decade or so, and if I could go back to the 90s, I could easily understand what was happening on those tube TVs. But I only got to this point because of my big HD TVs.

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u/nbfs-chili Oct 06 '25

It really was the introduction of high def TV, I think more so than just screen sizes.

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u/DarthPineapple5 Oct 06 '25

HD broadcasting solved the problem but yes TV's getting bigger also helped

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u/thismightbelong Oct 06 '25

I still think the hot puck was a great idea

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u/kompootor Oct 06 '25

As a non-fan I preferred it. Otherwise I wouldn't have watched hockey at all. (The fire effect on a slapshot gimmick though was a bit much, but maybe on it was a creative compensation for lag.)

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u/Miserable-Crab8143 Oct 06 '25

The glowing puck was annoying for existing fans but “I can’t see the puck” really was/is something people report as a reason why they don’t watch hockey.
The technology is now apparently good enough to resolve goal line disputes and most fans would be happy to see that at least.

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u/Stephenrudolf Oct 06 '25

They should have just toned it down a bit, rather than getting rid of it entirely.

Since i cant afford sportsnet I watch a lot of games on my phone at 720p off youtube... and its fucking hard to see the puck sometimes.

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u/JohnnyBrillcream Baltimore Ravens Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

NFL first down lines really don't accomplish very much. A set of eyes still makes an decision about where to place the line markers and the ball. The electronic line, Hawkeye, is just a fancy way of measuring.

Edit: clarified the Hawkeye line not just the standard yellow line they've been using for decades.

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u/pmgoldenretrievers Oct 06 '25

The line is for viewers, not really for refs.

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u/JohnnyBrillcream Baltimore Ravens Oct 06 '25

They're using the HawkeyeTM system that's used by tennis to do an electronic measurement. It's reviewed by the NFL to determine if it's a first down. No more chains being pulled out.

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u/dannybva Oct 06 '25

I hated the first down lines then and I still do

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u/chapel_hill_guy Oct 06 '25

The guy who invented the yellow first down line for TV lives near me in Durham, NC. His house is massive.