Last night Fox Sports unveiled a new graphics package, as companies tend to do for the Super Bowl, and I pretty much liked it. The main thing to notice was the score box—minimalist, clean, not too distracting. Sports broadcasts tend to clutter up the screen, and this was a nice change in my opinion. It did clash with the maximalist Super Bowl graphics, but I will be happy if that’s the route Fox is going with next season.
I will admit that it is at least a little bit sad that I care about this. Time to make things even sadder: I have one massive complaint about the Super Bowl graphics package, and I want to share it with you here. A few times per game football broadcasts will throw to the announcers in the booth, where they will deliver analysis, convey game storylines, or just yuk it up a bit on camera. With the game itself being a blowout pretty much straight through, last night's broadcast went to Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady multiple times. They were shown not in the booth, but in front of a green screen. More to the point, Burkhardt and Brady were in front of a green screen depicting a completely empty alleyway that had apparently just been soaked by rain.
I realize that this is a representation of Bourbon Street. But how was this the shot Fox chose? It was impressive in the pregame when the shot actually rolled into the shot of Burkhardt and Brady, as if the pair were standing on Bourbon Street itself. Solid work. But why put them … there? It is dark. It is empty. It has clearly just poured. And so instead of New Orleans’ premier tourist destination, it looked like the broadcast team was standing around in a dark alleyway that just happens to be adorned with neon signs for the Chiefs and the Eagles, as if anxiously awaiting a rideshare pickup.
It's not as if New Orleans doesn't offer other, more exciting options. Let’s say the duo were on a second-floor balcony on Bourbon Street, with a crowd behind them yelling at Burkhardt to throw them some beads. (Tom would already be throwing them.) Very recognizably New Orleans! So how was this the backdrop for two announcers filling space between Patrick Mahomes interceptions? Are we supposed to believe they’re actually on Bourbon Street announcing the game? If so, can they tell us about it? That’s pretty cool.
Obviously it’s just a bit of TV magic. But why make the backdrop a completely empty Bourbon Street that makes it look like an alleyway? Why are there puddles all over the place? What else is at the dead end behind them with the Fox logo and the giant Lombardi Trophy?
This shot was cracking me up all game, and I was already in a good mood given that the Eagles were blowing out the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Sometime in the third quarter, I realized what this visual reminded me of. It was the mission in the 1990s role-playing game where you sneak out at night and the previously bustling town is silent. It is going into McNeil Manor in Breath of Fire III. It is the empty market in Antiqua in Secret of Evermore. It is sneaking into the sewers in Xenogears. It is getting Aeris to the playground in Final Fantasy VII. There might be other references you’d get, too, but I don’t know what you know.
Anyway, I want to go there. I want to go to an empty Bourbon Street and splash around in the puddles while Burkhardt and Brady talk into the camera. This alleyway delights me. I want to know more about it. Defector has the budget for a trip to this place, and I need to go there to study it. Fox Sports, a plea: Take me to this rainy alleyway. Please.
