Figure It Out ESPN – New Video of Virginia Tech Missed Kick Proves Just How Easy It Would Be To Show The Right Angle
This was the original angle seen by everyone who watched the end of the Virginia Tech-Pitt game last Friday night. It's a problem that surfaces at least once a year during football season. A crucial field goal is kicked high in the air and travels through the uprights (or in this case, outside the uprights) higher than the goalposts extend. Based on the angles provided by the broadcast, it's damn near impossible to tell for certain whether or not the kick was good.
Whichever team is on the wrong end of the call becomes outraged. The refs who make the call have the best view of anyone, but for whatever reason, we never get a camera angle that definitively proves if the kick was good or bad. Not in real time. The best ESPN will give us is that second angle, which only raises more questions than it answers.
From there, we always have the same discussion. It's a fair discussion, too. "How on earth, in the year 2026, do refs not have access to technology or camera angles that definitively show where the ball crosses through the uprights?"
People start talking lasers that shoot into the sky. We'll reference the technology used in tennis or soccer that can tell of a ball lands in bounds by a cunt hair, or if Romelu Lukaku was offside by a bulge.
That's not a real picture, but it might as well be. We use so much crazy technology in the world of sports to determine things that are far more difficult and far less consequential than a last-second game-winning field goal. If there's anywhere we should be using this technology, it's in America's most popular sport, at the most crucial moment of the game.
However, this morning I saw a new angle of the Virginia Tech missed field goal.
Oh… well, shit. I suppose that clears things up even more. It was a missed kick. As evident by this newest angle, it wasn't especially close.
So, moving forward, maybe we don't need the NFL and the NCAA to invest in the finest VAR to determine field goals. Based on that very clear and decisive video, all we need are two cameramen (or camerawomen) standing about 5 yards back of the end zone, in line with the kicker and the upright.
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Do you see how easy that is, ESPN? Do you see how many headaches you could save fans if you simply had two of your 50 camerapeople (who are probably already standing in the end zone) get in line with the goalpost and the kicker to film the kick? Then you can show us that angle right away so we don't have to wait for the Zapruder films to trickle in on Twitter. Maybe the refs could even consult it so they don't risk learning an hour later that they royally fucked up the game?
It's just a thought, guys. Seems like it would be a really easy thing to do that would benefit everybody involved. But what the hell do I know? They'll let me post anything on this website.