September 27, 2024 • 10 mins
Join us on Daily Sports History as we uncover the origins and technology behind the iconic yellow 1st down line in football broadcasts. Learn how this digital innovation transformed the viewing experience for fans, the tech behind its real-time accuracy, and the impact it has had on sports broadcasting. Discover how a simple line became a game-changer in football coverage.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On September twenty seventh, nineteen ninety eight, on a Sunday
night football game where the Baltimore Ravens were facing off
against the Cincinnati Bengals, ESPN debuted a new technology that
would revolutionize how we all watch football today. And this
(00:20):
technology was the yellow first down line. Many of us
have never watched a game without this marker, but it's
changed how we view the game, and these technologies are
why many of us prefer to watch the game on
TV rather than in person. For the story behind it
goes beyond just the yellow line. Today, we're going to
(00:42):
learn about how it got started, how the technology was
it created, and how it all works on Daily Sports History.
Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide
to help you daily increase your sports knowledge. And today's
(01:06):
trivia question to listen out for is how much money
did it cost in nineteen ninety eight to produce the
yellow first down line for one game? Now, sports and
technology have gone hand in hand in many different ways
and slowly use each other to build momentum with each other.
(01:28):
Before TV and radio, you had to go to a
game and watch. When you first went to games, there
were no announcers, no scoreboards. Then scoreboards were invented. Then
a PA announcer would be there giving you the down
and distance and would eventually transform into giving you player
names and give you information on the game in a
basic way. Then radio came along to cover games through
(01:51):
live broadcasting, and they would give you even more details
so you could envision in your head what was going
on on the field. Gave a boom to baseball and
football and boxing. Then TV came along, which we covered
the very first televised football game, which we'll put in
the description below. And they first started out with just
(02:13):
the PA announcer, and then they got commentary involved give
you even more information that was going on. And if
you have ever watched the game today, ESPN has done
on their multiple channels where they have a feed where
you just watch the game with no commentary. And they've
tested this before, and fans don't like no commentary. We've
(02:34):
grown accustomed to the commentary, even though a lot of
us don't like the commentators such as Chris Collinsworth. But
without the commentary, the game feels odd and many of
us have grown to enjoy watching the game on the
television rather than in person. As you get more information,
you get to know why players are injured, what the
(02:55):
down and distance are. You get to know more about
the players as they give you where they're from, or
what they've done, or their stats. You can learn all
this during the game that you don't get to learn
while you are in person, which has made it very
hard for some teams in the NFL to sell tickets
as the game has gotten so good on TV. But
(03:16):
one of those great technologies that has grown from TV
was the first down yellow line. Pre nineteen ninety eight,
when you watched the football game, they just told you
where the first down was and what the down distance was.
You didn't know exactly where the first down was. This
concept was actually thought of years before. David W. D.
(03:39):
Crane conceived and patented the idea for the first down
distances in nineteen seventy eight, and he actually presented it
to ABC News and ABC Sports into the CBS Technology
Center and both decided that the broadcast industry was not
ready for something this complex. But Ukraine wasn't done. He
(04:02):
actually started a company called sports Vision, which has helped
adapt graphics for all kinds of sports, and in nineteen
ninety five they partnered with Fox to produce the Fox
Track puck. Now they made a specialized glowing cup to
help fans track the puck while they watched, as this
was a complaint for many that watched the game, as
(04:23):
at the time in the nineties, many of us were
watching sports, but it was still a little bit grainy
on live sports and it was hard to follow the
puck around it as it is only about three inches
in diameter. So they put a chip inside the puck
that would make a glowing blue ring around it, and
when the puck was hit more than seventy five miles
an hour, it would create a red strand kind of
(04:45):
like a fireball, showing where it was going. And this
allowed you to really follow the game much better. But
it wasn't conceived all that great, as many thought it
was like a video game or a gimmick, and they
just wanted to watch the game for what it was
without this extra stuff. So when Fox lot's the contract
for the NHL, that puck was left on the cutting
(05:07):
room floor. But this gave them a chance to show
that they could use their technology in live game situations,
and that's when Sports Vision brought their technology to ESPN
telling them they could create a first down marker, not
only a line during the live broadcast, but a line
that wouldn't cover any player. So basically it looked like
(05:28):
a line on the field, but it wasn't really there.
It's an interesting concept, but it took a lot of oversight,
and how it actually worked was they would literally diagram
each and every angle that all the cameras could be using,
so they could know exactly where the line would have
to be for this camera or that camera. So it
(05:49):
was a painstaking process, but luckily, since the fields are
all standardized, they could create this once and use that
model for all the other locations. But it was a
process for each every angle that the possible cameras could use,
and that just allowed them to have the line. But
what really took some time was having that yellow line
(06:12):
not to cover up the players. And what they did
to do this was they took the color of the
field and enter that into their computer model, and they
would tell the computer that anytime this line came across
these colors of the field, to have it there, but
if there was any other color that appeared on that surface,
(06:32):
they would not cover it. So it's not a continuous
line in the system. It's a lot of little dots.
And even though the grass is green and the Green
Bay Packers have green jerseys, because they are different shades
of green, there's no problem. Usually. There is only a
problem with this system when there is snow. As the
snow changes colors constantly, then gets muddied brown. So they
(06:56):
have to constantly update these colors throughout the game and
let the system know that these are the kind of
colors that we could come in contact with. But to
do this it requires a whole team to be involved. First,
you have to have the spot or that tells you
where the ball is spotted, so they know where to
put into the computer system where the line is supposed
(07:16):
to go. And they need to update the color system
as the game goes along because it's gonna be shading,
there's gonna be changes in the snow, there's gonna be
changes in the weather, so the view of the field
will change as well. But before ESPN signed off on this,
they wanted it to be one hundred percent accurate. So
what Sports Vision Team would do is they would bring
a whole truck in secret to all the NFL games
(07:40):
and they would do basically the process they would do
without broadcasting it, so it was a whole secret feed
that they could test to see how it was going,
and they had almost ninety nine percent accuracy, but they
wanted to be one percent accurate before they did it,
so they didn't start opening day and it wasn't until
week four that sea where they felt confident that they
(08:01):
had the system down and they decided to cover the
ESPN Sunday Night football game where the Cincinnati Bengals took
on Baltimore, and it was an immediate success. Fans loved
the concept and the only negative comments they really got
was that the line kind of shook a little bit
sometimes when there was movement, which they have since updated
(08:23):
through the years that now it's almost a perfect and
it's almost one hundred percent accurate to where the line
is compared to the first down marker, and they've even
incorporated the line of scrimmage marker as well as including
third down as well, including the down and distance and
time and the game clock, so many things that can
(08:43):
be included onto the field because of this same system,
but because it required a team of six to operate
each in every game, it cost twenty five thousand dollars
per game, and so it was a cost the expense
and in two thousand and one, Fox actually cut it
to save some cost, but received huge fan backlash. The
(09:05):
Fox immediately reinstated it as the cost was now just
the cost of producing a game. And this one little
thing that we take for granted many times when we're
watching the games and we love because if they took
it away, we would all cry about it changed how
we watch football forever. And if you want to learn
(09:28):
more about TV history, check out Inside the Box, the
TV History podcast where Jonathan, Andrew and Steve take you
throughout all history, including talking about regional sports networks and
the history of the NFL films, as well as history
of great television shows that we all love. So we'll
(09:51):
put a link in the description for you to check
it out so you can learn even more about TV history.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you
subscribe wherever you're listening so you don't miss a single episode,
because the more you listen, the more you will learn.
In the answer to today's trivia question, how much money
(10:13):
did it cost in nineteen ninety eight to produce the
yellow first Down? Line for one game, and the answer
is to cover the expenses of a Sports Vision's team
of six and a semi truck. It was twenty five
thousand dollars a game.
On September twenty seventh, nineteen ninety eight, on a Sunday
night football game where the Baltimore Ravens were facing off
against the Cincinnati Bengals, ESPN debuted a new technology that
would revolutionize how we all watch football today. And this
(00:20):
technology was the yellow first down line. Many of us
have never watched a game without this marker, but it's
changed how we view the game, and these technologies are
why many of us prefer to watch the game on
TV rather than in person. For the story behind it
goes beyond just the yellow line. Today, we're going to
(00:42):
learn about how it got started, how the technology was
it created, and how it all works on Daily Sports History.
Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide
to help you daily increase your sports knowledge. And today's
(01:06):
trivia question to listen out for is how much money
did it cost in nineteen ninety eight to produce the
yellow first down line for one game? Now, sports and
technology have gone hand in hand in many different ways
and slowly use each other to build momentum with each other.
(01:28):
Before TV and radio, you had to go to a
game and watch. When you first went to games, there
were no announcers, no scoreboards. Then scoreboards were invented. Then
a PA announcer would be there giving you the down
and distance and would eventually transform into giving you player
names and give you information on the game in a
basic way. Then radio came along to cover games through
(01:51):
live broadcasting, and they would give you even more details
so you could envision in your head what was going
on on the field. Gave a boom to baseball and
football and boxing. Then TV came along, which we covered
the very first televised football game, which we'll put in
the description below. And they first started out with just
(02:13):
the PA announcer, and then they got commentary involved give
you even more information that was going on. And if
you have ever watched the game today, ESPN has done
on their multiple channels where they have a feed where
you just watch the game with no commentary. And they've
tested this before, and fans don't like no commentary. We've
(02:34):
grown accustomed to the commentary, even though a lot of
us don't like the commentators such as Chris Collinsworth. But
without the commentary, the game feels odd and many of
us have grown to enjoy watching the game on the
television rather than in person. As you get more information,
you get to know why players are injured, what the
(02:55):
down and distance are. You get to know more about
the players as they give you where they're from, or
what they've done, or their stats. You can learn all
this during the game that you don't get to learn
while you are in person, which has made it very
hard for some teams in the NFL to sell tickets
as the game has gotten so good on TV. But
(03:16):
one of those great technologies that has grown from TV
was the first down yellow line. Pre nineteen ninety eight,
when you watched the football game, they just told you
where the first down was and what the down distance was.
You didn't know exactly where the first down was. This
concept was actually thought of years before. David W. D.
(03:39):
Crane conceived and patented the idea for the first down
distances in nineteen seventy eight, and he actually presented it
to ABC News and ABC Sports into the CBS Technology
Center and both decided that the broadcast industry was not
ready for something this complex. But Ukraine wasn't done. He
(04:02):
actually started a company called sports Vision, which has helped
adapt graphics for all kinds of sports, and in nineteen
ninety five they partnered with Fox to produce the Fox
Track puck. Now they made a specialized glowing cup to
help fans track the puck while they watched, as this
was a complaint for many that watched the game, as
(04:23):
at the time in the nineties, many of us were
watching sports, but it was still a little bit grainy
on live sports and it was hard to follow the
puck around it as it is only about three inches
in diameter. So they put a chip inside the puck
that would make a glowing blue ring around it, and
when the puck was hit more than seventy five miles
an hour, it would create a red strand kind of
(04:45):
like a fireball, showing where it was going. And this
allowed you to really follow the game much better. But
it wasn't conceived all that great, as many thought it
was like a video game or a gimmick, and they
just wanted to watch the game for what it was
without this extra stuff. So when Fox lot's the contract
for the NHL, that puck was left on the cutting
(05:07):
room floor. But this gave them a chance to show
that they could use their technology in live game situations,
and that's when Sports Vision brought their technology to ESPN
telling them they could create a first down marker, not
only a line during the live broadcast, but a line
that wouldn't cover any player. So basically it looked like
(05:28):
a line on the field, but it wasn't really there.
It's an interesting concept, but it took a lot of oversight,
and how it actually worked was they would literally diagram
each and every angle that all the cameras could be using,
so they could know exactly where the line would have
to be for this camera or that camera. So it
(05:49):
was a painstaking process, but luckily, since the fields are
all standardized, they could create this once and use that
model for all the other locations. But it was a
process for each every angle that the possible cameras could use,
and that just allowed them to have the line. But
what really took some time was having that yellow line
(06:12):
not to cover up the players. And what they did
to do this was they took the color of the
field and enter that into their computer model, and they
would tell the computer that anytime this line came across
these colors of the field, to have it there, but
if there was any other color that appeared on that surface,
(06:32):
they would not cover it. So it's not a continuous
line in the system. It's a lot of little dots.
And even though the grass is green and the Green
Bay Packers have green jerseys, because they are different shades
of green, there's no problem. Usually. There is only a
problem with this system when there is snow. As the
snow changes colors constantly, then gets muddied brown. So they
(06:56):
have to constantly update these colors throughout the game and
let the system know that these are the kind of
colors that we could come in contact with. But to
do this it requires a whole team to be involved. First,
you have to have the spot or that tells you
where the ball is spotted, so they know where to
put into the computer system where the line is supposed
(07:16):
to go. And they need to update the color system
as the game goes along because it's gonna be shading,
there's gonna be changes in the snow, there's gonna be
changes in the weather, so the view of the field
will change as well. But before ESPN signed off on this,
they wanted it to be one hundred percent accurate. So
what Sports Vision Team would do is they would bring
a whole truck in secret to all the NFL games
(07:40):
and they would do basically the process they would do
without broadcasting it, so it was a whole secret feed
that they could test to see how it was going,
and they had almost ninety nine percent accuracy, but they
wanted to be one percent accurate before they did it,
so they didn't start opening day and it wasn't until
week four that sea where they felt confident that they
(08:01):
had the system down and they decided to cover the
ESPN Sunday Night football game where the Cincinnati Bengals took
on Baltimore, and it was an immediate success. Fans loved
the concept and the only negative comments they really got
was that the line kind of shook a little bit
sometimes when there was movement, which they have since updated
(08:23):
through the years that now it's almost a perfect and
it's almost one hundred percent accurate to where the line
is compared to the first down marker, and they've even
incorporated the line of scrimmage marker as well as including
third down as well, including the down and distance and
time and the game clock, so many things that can
(08:43):
be included onto the field because of this same system,
but because it required a team of six to operate
each in every game, it cost twenty five thousand dollars
per game, and so it was a cost the expense
and in two thousand and one, Fox actually cut it
to save some cost, but received huge fan backlash. The
(09:05):
Fox immediately reinstated it as the cost was now just
the cost of producing a game. And this one little
thing that we take for granted many times when we're
watching the games and we love because if they took
it away, we would all cry about it changed how
we watch football forever. And if you want to learn
(09:28):
more about TV history, check out Inside the Box, the
TV History podcast where Jonathan, Andrew and Steve take you
throughout all history, including talking about regional sports networks and
the history of the NFL films, as well as history
of great television shows that we all love. So we'll
(09:51):
put a link in the description for you to check
it out so you can learn even more about TV history.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you
subscribe wherever you're listening so you don't miss a single episode,
because the more you listen, the more you will learn.
In the answer to today's trivia question, how much money
(10:13):
did it cost in nineteen ninety eight to produce the
yellow first Down? Line for one game, and the answer
is to cover the expenses of a Sports Vision's team
of six and a semi truck. It was twenty five
thousand dollars a game.
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