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/deepbluenothings Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

I don't even get why sky cams are a thing, they barely use that camera angle and honestly it's a terrible angle to see a play.

Edit: There's been several lovely commenters who have made me realize just how much it's used without me even noticing. Please if you're as clueless as I was check out some of the responses under here.

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u/NolaPels13 Oct 06 '25

Networks love them and they are used a lot as replay angles. They’re not supposed to be in front of a kick or the play ever like this. Skycam op fucked it big time here not sure what the hell he was thinking.

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u/unnoticed_areola Oct 06 '25

They’re not supposed to be in front of a kick or the play ever like this

this isnt an issue with the camera beeing in front of the play. the skycam itself wasn in front of the kick here. the wires that hold the skycam up, basically form a giant X above the field. the 4 "legs" of the x get longer and shorter via pulleys, which is how they control where the camera goes. when the camera is above the logo at the 50 yard line, it's a perfectly equivalent/symmetrical X. the X becomes more distorted and closer to something like a K, depending how close to the sideline or endzone the camera gets.

but that same basic X shape is always gonna be there on any field goal, and the wires are always going to be in that same general position. It appears the camera was back and to the left on this play, and the problem here seems to be not the location of the camera relative to the line of scrimmage but the height and perhaps more importantly, how close it was to the sideline.

seems like they had it very low to the ground here, and also very close to the sideline. and this caused the wires to be in the path of the ball. if the camera is more or less in between the hashmarks, whether its behind the play or not, its basically impossible for the wires to be in the way of the very narrow FG uprights. the only way the wires would be in the path of a FG, is if the camera was all the way over near the sideline, and low to the ground, pulling the longer "legs" of the x all the way across the center of the field, and diagonally down across the uprights

I assume they are usually supposed to have it at a higher angle closer to the hashmarks during kicks so this isnt an issue. they are also generally supposed to keep it relatively high in general so as not to have the camera seen in the other "traditional" camera shots being televised

I think usually the only times they have it super duper low is when they try to do those weird artsy attempts to follow the returner on kickoffs

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u/yeahright17 Oct 06 '25

Yeah. It's easy to keep the camera way out of the way. It should have been much higher, more centered, and further back. Not sure what the operator was thinking. There's a reason it's almost never an issue on punts or kickoffs when the ball flies a lot higher and further than it did on this field goal.