I love watching football.  It is by far my favorite game on TV.  The display of athleticism and skill, the sophistication of the plays, and the strategic battle between opposing coaches all captivate me.  Thanks to modern technology, my wristwatch will even prompt me with scoring updates from my favorite teams when I am unable to see them live.  This is downright amazing, except for one thing.

Earlier this football season, I was live-streaming a game where the outcome depended on one last play.  My team was down by 1 point with 5 seconds remaining and a fourth and goal from the one-yard line.  As the camera zoomed in on our field goal kicker getting lined up, my watch buzzed, flashing the final score (we lost).  As I looked back to the TV screen, the kicker nodded, the ball was hiked and, sure enough, the kick was blocked. As sophisticated as my watch may be, it has no AI that can forecast the future.  Clearly, the “live” stream was not.

Pundits speculate that this can be blamed on the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVII, where Justin Timberlake tore off a strategic portion of co-performer Janet Jackson’s costume.  Some might also suggest that those large parabolic microphones carried by operators along the sidelines sometimes pick up colorful language that the league might not want to broadcast.  NFL films actually put mikes in the shoulder pads of some interior linemen – this is one of the reasons that Peyton Manning’s legendary “Omaha” call went viral.  Not only was all this audio and video information a bit too risky for the NFL, but the occasional latency problems of a live-stream could prove very annoying to viewers.  The solution – a time delay of 20-60 seconds. <continue reading>