NFL kickers are hitting their stride this season thanks to a new rule that allows them to practice with the same footballs they play with on Sundays. But the Minnesota Vikings’ Will Reichard might have a word of caution for his fellow kickers: watch out for the cameras.
Reichard’s perfect field goal record this season was spoiled on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. With 9:47 left in the fourth quarter and the Vikings trailing by 3 points, Reichard attempted a 51-yard kick that would have tied the game at 17. The kick appeared to be on line, but then took a sharp turn wide right. The kick was considered a miss, but two Vikings team sources are confident it hit the camera wire, which should have resulted in a rekick.
Reichard had been 3-for-3 from 50-plus yards before the game, including a 62-yard make against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3. Luckily for the Vikings, they escaped with a 21-17 win, going 1-1 on their overseas road trip to Dublin and London.
“I didn’t notice anything during the game,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said Monday. “That’s a pretty tough angle for us normally, anyway. Most of the time, I’m just trying to gauge the crowd reaction. … I did not see it in the moment.
It wasn’t the only play potentially altered by camera-related interference on Sunday. In the New York Jets-Dallas Cowboys game at MetLife Stadium, quarterback Justin Fields’ pass hit Dallas defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. and ricocheted upwards, where it hit the Fox Skycam. The play was ruled an incomplete pass, even though the NFL rulebook states that a ball hitting the Skycam should result in a replay.
Neither the officials nor the replay-assist team jumped in to correct either play, nor did either team challenge the call on the field.
“I would defer to the league if that’s something (where) there should be some protocols in place that I should know about,” O’Connell said. “But other than maybe somebody in the booth alerting me that they saw it, Will himself is going to be a critical guy in that moment. But a lot of times, a kicker is a lot like a golf swing. They’re keeping their head down, and they might not even see it initially. He told me he thought he hit it well. And Will doesn’t end up that far off line historically.
“But … that was unfortunate if it did happen. And if it didn’t, so be it.”
The Vikings-Browns game was played at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which will host another NFL game on Sunday when the Denver Broncos face the Jets. The game was broadcast by the NFL Network, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.