DeDolfan
Practice Squad
but I just did a recheck on that "controversial" FG by NE the other day. I was curious as to where the ball actually was in relationship to the upright when it passed over the crossbar. I looked at all the different reply angles and none of them were sufficient to be able to be absolutely certain. So, what i did was to take advantage of the features that TiVo offers and I advanced the video frame by frame until Vinateri's foot touched the ball. I advanced it from there, frame by frame til the ball hit the net. It took 53 frames for that to happen. Now, I figured the net to be 10 yds behing the goalposts/endline. I don't know the exact distance but it is no further than that i'm sure of. Anyway, the FG was 29 yds so the total distance from foot to net was 39 yds. That figures to be about 1.36 yds for every frame advanced. OK, of the 39 total yds, the FG distance of 29 is about 74% of that which means that the ball should have been directly over the crossbar at the 29 yd distance at frame 39. Now here is where it gets interesting. While i was watching the ball in super slo-mo by frame and counting them, the ball appeared to be about 3 feet inside the upright when it was far enough along to view it with the goalposts. As it rose up, i have to admit the ball was not real clear with the crowd in the background. But I could still count while watching this "fuzzy" ball and then it appeared clear again at frame 40 and frame 41 is the point the ball apeared to be directly ove the left upright, which by my "scientific" calculations would be about 2.72 yds PAST the goal. Therefore, in frame 39 when the ball was directly over the crossbar, it would have been somewhat inside the outer edge of the upright. So, I must conclude that this "controversial" FG is no longer conroversial and was in fact, GOOD. Anyway, the ball was hooking all the way and is just like a baseball. The ball can hook and fall 20 yds [on the foul side] off the extended foul line on a ball hit a total distance of 400 feet as long as it passed on the fair side of the pole on it's way out. The only difference is that in baseball, the ball can doink off the pole in foul territory and is still good whereas a football can doink but still must bounce "right" and in to be good. A rule change, IMO, is in order. either make any doink good or any doink a miss. Either way, it's fair for all but I think that if doinks were good then it would be easier, than not, in judging this past FG in NE. Personally, a doink should be worth more than a TD even. i'd bet there would be alot less of them then, if everybody was gunning for it !! 
