The NFL has decided to make the uprights five feet higher this season, and the manufacturers of goal posts say that’s a harder job than the NFL realized.
David Moxley, director of sports construction sales at goal post maker Sportsfield Specialties, told Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic that his company is in the process of an engineering study to determine whether changing the goal posts from 30 feet to 35 feet will make them more susceptible to potentially blowing over on a windy day.
“It’s actually pretty significant,” Moxley said. “It isn’t as easy as putting 5-foot extensions on each side.”
Neil Gilman, president of Gilman Gear, agreed.
“I think the NFL thought, ‘Just weld on five more feet and everything will be cool,'” Gilman said. “That’s not the case.”
The companies aren’t saying they can’t add height to the goal posts, but they are saying it’s not as simple as the Competition Committee and the owners might have thought. It’s worth the work necessary to get the call right when a ball passes more than 30 feet over the cross bar, but the work is significant.