The NFL needs to upgrade its basic Amazon Prime subscription.
In a surreal series of events on Thursday Night Football that make the Premier League’s VAR appear perfectly brilliant, the San Francisco 49ers held on to defeat the Seattle Seahawks 36-24 on the road — despite a blatantly missed call going against the 49ers.
In the fourth quarter, football fans across the globe streaming the game on Prime viewed multiple replays that showed a punt obviously hitting the hand of Seattle returner Dee Williams.
Veteran announcer Al Michaels saw it.
TV referee analyst Terry McAulay definitely saw it, using his past experience as an NFL referee to expertly explain what refs on TNF were somehow missing on the field.
But with San Francisco leading by less than a touchdown in a tight divisional game, Seattle was allowed to keep the ball and regain momentum.
Initially, McAulay stuck to the facts and explained what he was seeing on Amazon‘s video.
“We’ve seen two different angles where it’s pretty clear it hits the finger of the receiving team player and then there’s a clear recovery,” McAulay said.
“I believe this should have been reversed to San Francisco’s football.”
Fans agreed.
“Unbelievable, how do they keep getting these wrong?” one fan tweeted.
But it soon became more unbelievable.
McAulay then told Michaels that the NFL’s command center did not receive Amazon’s “enhanced” video feed during the replay review, despite the fact that football fans everywhere kept watching replays of the “enhanced” view.
“What they had was the raw feed from our cameras ,” McAulay said.
“And it was not clear and obvious to them that it touched the finger.”
But it was to almost every NFL fan across the world.
“Maybe they should have someone watching the game broadcast,” one fan tweeted.
“It’s a multi-billion dollar league and they don’t even have enhanced replay that the TV networks have,” a second fan wrote.
“Poverty NFL doesn’t have access to the cameras that Amazon utilizes during the games,” a third fan said.
“Instead they use flip phones. They have to email them to themselves and then pull up on a laptop like we did in 2001. No network in the stadium.”
“What are the Kansas City Chiefs refs doing in Seattle?” a fourth fan joked.
Thankfully for the 49ers, they finished off the ‘Hawks and improved to 3-3 this season withoutChristian McCaffrey.
Brock Purdy threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns, while Geno Smith threw two interceptions and struggled for Seattle.
The NFL’s is the richest sports league in the world and the Dallas Cowboys are valued at $10 billion, which tops Real Madrid and Manchester United.
Buffering in 2024 is super annoying, and 4K UHD can sound confusing.
But hopefully for next week’s installment of Thursday Night Football, the NFL will pay to upgrade its Prime subscription.
Or at least figure out how to stream the game live in replay command center.
“@nflcommish, I hope this is looked into,” one fan tweeted.
“The explanation later was the funniest part,” a second fan wrote.
“Apparently at the replay center in NY, they don’t have the ability to zoom. LOL.”
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