A thick fog "settled into the bowl" of Gillette Stadium midway through the Patriots’ 23-7 win over the Falcons last night, rendering several of NBC's "SNF" camera angles "useless" during the broadcast, according to Nora Princiotti of the BOSTON GLOBE. The field was "almost entirely obscured from the upper levels of the stadium." "SNF" Exec Producer Fred Gaudelli in an email wrote, "When the second half began the main cameras which shoot the play-by-play action of the game seemed to be getting more milky by the second. At that point director Drew Esocoff and I talked about making the switch to Skycam because both of them were the only unaffected cameras out of the 25 we deploy. We knew we’d be making that switch pretty quickly the way things were deteriorating visually." Princiotti notes NBC was "using a second SkyCam for the first time ever" during the broadcast, and that camera could "float at heights of 40-80 feet." With two cameras, and cameraman Ed Martino operating the SkyCam with a joystick, NBC had "multiple good angles for replays." NBC's Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth for most of the game "couldn’t see the field clearly." Michaels said, "I could see what the formations were, but once the play started, it had to be off the monitor. You couldn’t see a handoff or where a pass was going" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/23). Gaudelli said, "What changed was the fog now became a central storyline and had to be covered along with the game. Plus we had fewer cameras to cover the game because of the conditions. ... One big concern was if a play was to be challenged, would we have a conclusive shot to uphold or overturn? That never came to bear" (BOSTON HERALD, 10/23).
TWITTER REAX: The Ringer's Rodger Sherman tweeted, "Starting to feel like the fog just forced the greatest innovation in NFL broadcasting since they put the first-down line on the field." Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel: "It's foggy in Foxborough but Gillette Stadium has a lighthouse, proof Belichick truly thinks of everything." ESPN's Bill Barnwell: "This fog is like playing an entire game in Browns Quarterback mode."
