Network Climbs Inside Qbs’ Heads ‘Inside-The-Helmet’ Graphics Put Viewers On The Field

It may get a little cramped inside, but NBC Sports is promising an “inside-the helmet” view of today’s Super Bowl.

With a major assist from Silicon Graphics Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., NBC will utilize the latest in real-time 3D graphics, and put you, the viewer, in Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego … on the field … behind the quarterback’s face mask.

You’ll roll out. You’ll scramble. You’ll throw for the winning TD.

Ready or not, the gridiron is being invaded by interactive gamers.

NBC Sports commentator and former 49ers lineman Randy Cross likens the high-tech gadgetry to a “flight simulator for quarterbacks. This is a glimpse into the future of the game. Even the most jaded hard-core football fans will be impressed.”

SGI promises a “life-like” animated defensive line with linebackers and backs getting ready for the snap and then “bursting into action from the line of scrimmage.”

Greg Estes, director of entertainment marketing for SGI, calls the new Football-Guy software - developed by Boston Dynamics - “another tool in the hands of broadcasters.”

Cross, who has three Super Bowl rings himself, recently took a one-day tutorial in virtual reality at SGI’s main facility. During today’s game, expected to attract a billion viewers worldwide, Cross’ play-by-play and statistical analysis will be “enhanced” by SGI’s powerful Onyx2 computer and O2 desktop workstations.

Cross and his assistants will be able to access a detailed “digital stadium” - designed by MultiGen Inc. of San Jose - and analyze the game by comparing pass patterns, receiver patterns and yardage after each catch.

The technology, he predicts, will become as ubiquitous as instant replay.

SGI, not surprisingly, prefers it to instant replay. “This is like running 20 replays all at the same time,” Estes enthuses.”

While hardly a computer geek, Cross owns a Hewlett-Packard PC, a Toshiba laptop and does pre-game research on the Internet. He describes himself as, not all-thumbs, but a “reformed ‘thumbs’ guy.”

Cross allows that the old-timers and the “purists” may despise NBC’s new look. There’s always resistance to change.

“I know those guys. They’ll say, ‘Why don’t they leave (the game) alone?’ This is progress. I don’t look at this so much as an intrusion but as an expansion of the game.

“They stopped televising games in black-and-white a long time ago. Computers are deeply entrenched in football, in analyzing your opponents’ tendencies and weaknesses.”