The Thin Yellow Line

As the football season comes to a close (finally), it seems fitting to draw attention to something that most of us barely even notice anymore. I don't watch football that much, but it's even hard for me to imagine life before The Yellow Line. Granted, we are only talking about ten years ago, but it's easy to forget hard times.

For those of you who live in holes (or Detroit), The Yellow Line shows us how far the team has to go to get a first down. Sometimes, there will also be a blue line to show the line of scrimmage, or if it's a fourth down, The Yellow Line will turn red (Danger!). The kicker is that it only shows up on TV. Even though it looks like it's actually there! This is the real reason people use to justify spending hundreds of dollars on high definition televisions as opposed to spending sixty-two dollars (I'm told) on football tickets. It's all because of the yellow line.

The computer system that makes it happen is actually called "1st & Ten" (those graphics nerds are so clever), and was developed by a company called Sportvision. It requires seven computers, five cameras, four people, and a whole bunch of technology that I don't feel like explaining. These people do though, so ask them. Here's a picture just to take up some space. See how The Yellow Line disappears behind the dude with the ball? It's' magical.


The Yellow Line may not make football any more bearable for non-football fans, but that's okay. There's plenty of other stuff to watch on big flat screen tvs. Like Super Bowl commercials.