What started as a strange blip during a Week 5 Minnesota Vikings game in London has turned into a full-blown mystery the NFL can't seem to explain away.
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As ESPN's Kalyn Kahler and Kevin Seifert report, kicker Will Reichard's missed field goal against the New York Jets appeared to strike a SkyCam cable hovering above the field — something the league insists never happened.
The story had mostly disappeared until Al Michaels brought it back up during last Thursday's Prime Video broadcast of Vikings-Chargers. According to ESPN, NFL officiating executive Walt Anderson even called Amazon rules analyst Terry McAulay midweek to make sure he stated the league's official position: the ball did not hit a wire.
Reichard says otherwise. "They admitted to it hitting," the Vikings rookie told ESPN. "Take that for what it's worth."
His agent, Jim Ivler, confirmed that someone from the league office initially agreed to update Reichard's stats, then backed off the next day, saying the change "couldn't be made."
The league later told ESPN that the video was an "optical illusion," even including the play in a presentation to team owners last week.
But the damage was already done. Nearly three weeks passed before the NFL made any public comment — and by then, fans and media had filled in the blanks themselves.
Bottom line: whether or not the kick actually hit a cable, the NFL once again turned a minor incident into a credibility problem, as written by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
Basically, when the league only speaks up after Al Michaels does, people are going to question what it's trying to hide.
