Who says all technology is bad? NBC Sports' Skycam technology saved the day during the network's Week 7 telecast of Patriots-Falcons on "Sunday Night Football."
A thick fog settled over Gillette Stadium during the second half of the Patriots' 23-7 win Sunday night, rendering the usual high, sideline TV angle used by NFL broadcasts virtually useless. Thinking quickly, NBC decided to show the game mostly through its Skycam, the remote-controlled camera system that swoops in behind players via wires strung across the playing field.
The video-game like view turned out to be a new and cool experience for the TV audience.
NFL conspiracy theorists think the Patriots are behind the fog in last night's game vs. the Falcons.
— Sporting News (@sportingnews) October 23, 2017
Yes, really. https://t.co/sSfzDxdhiS pic.twitter.com/SoYqpVW9kH
Fog update: pic.twitter.com/jNqZBc3v0U
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 23, 2017
I think Belichick has a fog machine going. You can barely see the field from up top. #patson10 #Patriots pic.twitter.com/gbalARjxTL
— Joe Kayata (@NBC10_Joe) October 23, 2017
The fog got so bad, NBC play-by-play announcer Al Michaels had to turn away from the field and call the action off TV monitors.
"I could see the field minimally tonight," Michaels said after the game. "I could see what the formations were, but once the play started, it had to be off the monitor. You couldn't see a hand-off or where a pass was going."
And Michaels, the dean of play-by-play announcers, has seen it all. He recalled a similar foggy game in the 1980s, when Skycam technology did not exist.
"I thought back to when I did the 1981 Gator Bowl," Michaels said. "In those years there was no Skycam, but tonight, our Skycam was great. Any camera that was not on the field that night in Jacksonville was useless. I couldn't see anything that night because the booth at the Gator Bowl was very high, unlike in Foxborough, where it's relatively low."
Skycam-like systems have been used in sports TV for decades, but NBC was the first network to employ it regularly while broadcasting the XFL in 2001.
With NBC's Skycam recording the action, Falcons WR Mohamed Sanu makes a catch during the fourth quarter of Sunday night's game. (Getty Images)
Midway though the third quarter of Sunday night's game, Michaels informed viewers that NBC would make the switch to the Skycam angle due to the fog. At one point, Michaels showed viewers the almost-complete whiteout view from the booth.
"So you want to be a broadcaster, right?" he joked during the broadcast. Collinsworth said it looked like they were broadcasting from a "blimp."
Despite some positive reaction from viewers, NBC producer Fred Gaudelli thinks NFL TV networks will stick with the high, sideline camera views that have been used for decades.
"We've long talked about using Skycam more in the live play-by-play coverage of the game," Gaudelli told Sporting News. "However, what has stopped us is some of the system's limitations.
"For one, the ball is always moving away from the camera. Two, there are some geographical limitations to its fly zone and, three, the system is operated by two people: pilot Cody Taylor, who is in charge of where and how the camera flies, and operator Ed Martino, who is operating the pan, tilt and zoom of any robotic camera. Those obstacles keep us from using it as a main and constant viewing angle."
MORE: NFL playoff picture after Week 7
I remember the late, great Frank Gifford telling me that football, played on a rectangular field, was the most perfect sport ever invented for TV.
Viewers watched the NFL from a very different perspective Sunday night, and I'd like to see more of it.
