Football fans with end zone seats have tried over the years to come up with ways to distract a kicker who is attempting a field goal. The Patriots apparently devised something far more effective than a sign with an arrow pointing left or right.
Ryan Paganetti, an analytics expert who has worked for the Eagles, Jaguars, and Raiders, has spotted a tactic that he has dubbed “diabolically clever.”
When opposing teams prepare to attempt a field goal, the video board shows a reverse view of the formation, with the goal posts in the image creating four distinct yellow lines for the kicker to see.
When wind is an issue, the flags fly one way on the actual goalpost, and they move in the opposite direction on the two goalposts in the image on the board behind the target.
Paganetti says he watched “more than a decade” of TV broadcasts of Patriots home games. He saw “dozens” of examples of the optical illusion being employed for field-goal tries by the visiting teams. For 52 Patriots field-goal attempts he saw, the image never appeared in the video board the kicker was facing.
“We actually tried copying the idea when I was in Philadelphia,” Paganetti explains, “but the location of the video boards at Lincoln Financial Field made it nearly useless.”
It’s another example of the manner in which the Patriots paid attention to every single detail with the goal of acquiring any possible edge.