In a previous thread, there are complaints about a data entry error the Spectator made, however, compared to this story about the new Billion dollar plus stadium in Dallas, the Spectator has nothing to worry about.... :lol:
Seems like the punters are hitting the new video board which hangs over the field :lol: :twisted:
Oooops :rockin:
[url=http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-farmer-nfl23-2009aug23,0,3883808.story]http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-far ... 3808.story[/url][b]Dallas Cowboys' video board at new stadium is in punters' line of fire
[/b]
In the stadium's football debut, an exhibition game punt hits the underside of the huge screen and the ball is ruled dead. Jerry Jones doesn't see a problem. Titans Coach Jeff Fisher begs to differ.
By Sam Farmer
August 22, 2009
The Dallas Cowboys were hoping to raise the roof Friday when they unveiled their new stadium.
Turns out, they might have to raise the video board, which is in the line of fire for punts. Or the league could be forced to examine its rules.
"It's something we're going to have to look at in the next week," Mike Pereira, the NFL's director of officiating, told The Times on Saturday. "We need to see if there's anything further we can do to make sure there's equity involved if it happens again."
The problem: In the third quarter of Friday night's exhibition game against Tennessee -- the first football game in Dallas' $1.2-billion palace -- a punt by the Titans' A.J. Trapasso struck the underside of the gigantic video screen, hanging 90 feet above the field and stretching from one 20-yard line to the other.
The ball bounced straight down and was ruled dead, meaning the down had to be replayed. And the plunking wasn't surprising, seeing as second-stringer Trapasso hit the video board at least three times during warmups, and starter Craig Hentrich nailed it a dozen more.
Afterward, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he does not plan to move the board higher from the stadium floor (although reportedly it is being temporarily raised by 25 feet in October to accommodate the stage for a U2 concert).
"That's not the point," Jones told the Dallas Morning News after the game. "How high is high if somebody just wants to sit there and kick the ball straight up?"
But Titans Coach Jeff Fisher, co-chairman of the competition committee, said he considers it a problem, one complicated by the fact coaches will have to keep their red challenge flags at the ready because officials are watching for illegal blocks and not the arc of the ball.
"It's an issue, yeah," Fisher told reporters. "I'm sure the Cowboys or the league will tell you, I shouldn't have to throw the flag out there because [officials] didn't see the ball hit the scoreboard. Now, it's not necessarily their responsibility. Once a fair catch signal is given, then there are no eyes on the ball anymore. So they don't see it. So something has to get worked out. It can become a problem."
Pereira said it's entirely possible that a team trying to protect a lead could run time off the clock by intentionally punting the ball into the video board and getting a do-over. He said there is no rule for putting time back on the clock in that situation.
"We haven't talked at all about time being put on the clock," he said. "The only thing we've talked about really is the do-over of the play. We've never talked about resetting the clock back to where it was. That's obviously something we're going to have to talk about. And that may be what we arrive at.
"I would say that it's a big enough issue that we're going to have to address it with the competition committee here probably sometime this week to figure out what direction we want to go."