re: If a FG attempt hits the uprights

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NFL goalposts gaining 5 extra feet thanks to 'The Tucker Rule'

New goalposts are installed at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium. The uprights that reach to the sky on NFL goalposts will be 5 feet higher this season.

The simple aim is to help officials better eyeball whether field goal tries that fly high split the uprights. But when it comes to making that structural change, the devil is in the details. It's not just welding 5 extra feet of tubing atop the previously 30-foot uprights. Engineering goes into ensuring goalposts hold true when one kick might decide a game. A quick fix won't cut it.

"That is because from a structural analysis standpoint, we had to make sure that the goalposts were going to be able to withstand the wind loads of all areas of the country," says David Moxley, director of sports construction sales for Sportsfield Specialities, Inc., (SSI), the New York firm handling the switch to its aluminum goalposts in 23 of the NFL's 31 stadiums. Why not add 10 feet? Or 15? Moxley says that would really tax the engineering. How about lasers atop the uprights? That would pose a challenge, too. Anybody who's watched a field goal try hit an upright and make that "bonk" sound as it caroms either way knows that can be iffy.

"As a purist of the game, think of how many field goals get bumped off the uprights and go in our out," says Moxley. "If you put a laser in ... you can't necessarily replicate the bounce of an upright. There's no bonk. That bounce can mean a lot of things with how the football is going."

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