A visit to FoxSports NFL coverage

I got a unique opportunity yesterday to watch a NFL game from great seats. The father of one of the boys on the AYSO soccer team that I coach, Jason Carter, works with Fox Sports and helps broadcast their NFL games. He works for the company that puts the yellow first-down line on the screen, amongst other graphics. That's him on the right, clicking on the his screen to place the blue line that marks the postion of the ball. On the left is Jeff whose job is to constantly monitor the dozen shades of green and brown on the field and set the filter to block them out when their graphics are displayed without drawing the graphics over the chalk lines on the field, the players, the ball and everything else.





Sitting next to them was Ty who works the FoxBox. This display updates the info seen at the top of the screen with the score, the game clock, the down and distance and the live scores of other games around the country. When a penalty flag is thrown he clicks on his "Flag" button and the display on the screen automatically updates.

My credential gave me access to all parts of the stadium and to all parts of the production areas. During the second half I watched part of the game from the main truck where director Sandy Grossman and producer Michael Burks were calling the game. Both of these guys have won Emmys for their sports television coverage and they've both worked on Super Bowl broadcasts as well as many other sporting events.

Jason encouraged me to wander around during the game and take advantage of my pass, so I went to the press level and visited the broadcast booth where announcers Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan called the game. I also stopped by the press booth while I was up there.

My visit wasn't just for fun. I was hoping to see how they linked their statistics-tracking computers with their graphics-building computers to generate graphics such as the one pictured above. This is similar to what I am tring to do with my work on the Zain Africa Challenge TV show in Africa and I was hoping to pick up some clues on how I might accomplish this.

Unfortunately, their approach was decidedly low-tech. There was a group of 4 or 5 guys in the back row of the truck tracking game statistics with tally-marks on note pads and then yelling out the numbers when needed to the guy at the graphics computer who would type the numbers in by hand.

Never the less, it was a great experience to get to watch them produce a Network NFL game and I'm glad for the chance to have done it.