We argued earlier that the officials working the Week Four game between the Bengals and the Browns should have reviewed the final kick via replay to confirm that Shayne Graham’s 31-yard field goal passed through the uprights.
Jets kicker Jay Feely has pointed out to us, Twitter style, the field goals that go above the uprights aren’t subject to replay review.
And he’s right. Per Rule 15, Section 9, replay may be used for a field goal attempt “that crosses below or above the crossbar, inside or outside the uprights when it is lower than the top of the uprights, or touches anything.” (Emphasis added.)
The only glitch here is that replay might be needed to determine whether the ball was above the uprights when it passed through the uprights.
And as we mentioned earlier, the league needs to utilize available technology to determine whether the ball passes through the uprights.
Here’s a more radical, yet decidedly low tech, option: Place a horizontal bar at the top of the uprights and require the ball to pass fully inside the rectangle. It would add an intriguing degree of difficulty to chip shots, and it would have no effect on longer kicks.
Most importantly, it would make it much easier to determine whether or not a kick was good or bad.
Our first choice is the high-tech option. But we frankly prefer putting a lid on the uprights to a system that currently relies too heavily on the naked eye tracking a shadow of leather near the top of a long pole.