Ball direction and camera angles during NFL broadcasts

January 7, 2018 12:09 PM

Is there any rhyme/reason to the ball direction shown during NFL tv broadcasts, or is it strictly about what cameras are available in a given stadium (and/or which angles an editor chooses to use)?

I'm not asking about replays, just the standard-ish shots where each team is trying to move/keep the ball left or right. I ask because it doesn't appear to be related to which team has the ball, or what's happening in the game. Or maybe it is related, but it's complicated by field position? Or maybe each network has its own rules, so it looks non-standardized? Is there any kind of "180-degree rule" for football?

posted by unknowncommand to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (8 answers total)

Best answer: I think they orient so you’re watching from the side of the stadium where the press box is. Nowadays they have cameras everywhere, but in Ye Olden Times they may have just had a couple of cameras. Also that’s where the play-by-play announcers are watching, and that’s where the refs face to announce penalties.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:58 PM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I agree it has to do with the way the stadium is arranged. I think there is a bias to having the far side be the sunny side but I'm not sure.

Sometime after the invention of instant replay, when they had a clip from a camera on the far side, they put a subtitle to that effect on the screen "to keep the viewers from getting confused". They don't do that anymore, and you see replays from all angles.
posted by SemiSalt at 2:10 PM on January 7, 2018

Best answer: The above is correct: the default shot is a stationary camera in the press box.

The direction each team advances is determined by the pregame coin toss. After the team that won the toss decided whether they want to kick or receive, the team that lost the toss then decided which direction to defend first. The teams then switch sides each quarter.

So, if you've got a stadium oriented north-south, with the press box on the west side, and a team chooses to defend the north end zone, they will move left-to-right on offense in the first and third quarters, and right-to-left in the second and fourth quarters. Their opponents will be the opposite: right-to-left in Q1 and Q3, left-to-right in Q2 and Q4.

Note that nearly all football people hate this angle, because all players aren't visible at all times. The alternative is called All-22 (because there are 11 players on each team), and it's usually shot from high above one end zone. It's not more popular because casual fans are so accustomed to the press box view, but you can occasionally see it. ESPN will air an All-22 view of tomorrow's College Football Playoff National Championship Game on its website.
posted by kevinbelt at 2:19 PM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: A-ha! Thanks, that makes perfect sense, and I can "see" it now. It's funny, someone else actually asked me this question, but I couldn't verbalize why things looked the way they looked, because I was too familiar with how they looked.
posted by unknowncommand at 3:07 PM on January 7, 2018

There was a recent NFL game that used the skycam thiny (that floats over the field) for most of the game. They called it the "Madden view" -- because they televised the game with the same view a player of the Madden video games would see it. (something something get those kids back watching TV more so we can sell dilly-dilly beer blah blah blah)

Coverage:

WashPost

ESPN
posted by k5.user at 6:20 AM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: they will move left-to-right on offense in the first and third quarters, and right-to-left in the second and fourth quarters

Yeah, this often confuses non-football fans. The switch each quarter occurs so that, if there is a weather condition that makes advancing the ball in one direction easier, each team gets the benefit of that condition. To a casual watcher, it can appear that the broadcast has just flipped the camera angle, but really, the ball moves from one side of the field to the other and the teams switch which direction they are facing. This is especially so because often the end of the 1st and 3rd quarter are barely remarked upon by the broadcast team, especially if weather conditions are not dramatically bad.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:30 AM on January 8, 2018

Response by poster: Right, and they used to make a much bigger deal about the ends of the 1st and 3rd quarters. It didn't used to be as seamless, visually. So if you've started watching since then, you don't notice it as much.
posted by unknowncommand at 6:05 PM on January 8, 2018

It's also a lot easier to visualize if your primary exposure to football is live rather than televised.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:32 PM on January 8, 2018 [1 favorite]