Buffalo rang in December with a snow game.
Steady snowfall turned Highmark Stadium into a winter wonderland for the “Sunday Night Football” matchup between the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, creating a unique aesthetic that only happens every so often in NFL games.
With the field covered in white powder, NBC superimposed digital yard lines and numbers onto the field to help with the visibility on its game broadcast.
“We’ve enhanced the lines and the numbers here to help you watch along as the snow covers the field,” play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico said during the first quarter.
“They did come out and use blowers to clear off the five-yard marks all the way across the sidelines for visibility. It’s that kind of night.”
Initially, the numbers and lines had a transparent appearance without any white snow beneath them.
Buffalo Bills fans sit between snow covered seats as they watch players warm up before the game on Sunday. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
And viewers had strong feelings.
“Stop with the digital lines!” wrote an X user named Richard L. “We want snow!!”
Added another user named Michael Weinreb, “Superimposing yard-line numbers for television during a snow game should be a federal crime.”
Others suggested the feature was a distraction.
“I love snow games, but I hate this new ‘enhanced yard lines,’” wrote a user named D-Boy. “Straight up going through the players.”
But some seemed intrigued by the technology.
“How about this new tech in a snow-covered @SNFonNBC game… not only do we get the line of scrimmage and first down line… but now the yardage numbers,” wrote the user Ken Lovell.
By the second quarter, the broadcast had gone back to a more natural look.
