... but fortunately, haha, nobody is stupid enough to do that. ...

Wait. The Dallas Cowbosy put the largest, most expensive HD-video screen on the roof of their new stadium, hanging directly over the middle of the football field? And its already been hit by tall punts?

Man, that is just stupid. If you're a football team owner, you know that kickoffs and punts get pretty high up in the air. And you know that most punters in the league right now go with very high pooch-punts when trying to pin the other team close to the end zone. So why would you put an expensive scoreboard/screen over the middle of the field like that? Sure, it sounds like a cool idea, but, five seconds of rational though should have reminded you that punts get pretty high.

Ok, so the scoreboard is there. Its not going anywhere. Now we need to figure out how we are going to deal with balls hitting the scoreboard. The NFL has already ruled that balls hitting the screen will be "do-overs" AND that it will be a challenge-able play. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-cowboys-nfl29-2009aug29,0,7168724.storyBut this is just an interim ruling. What are the long-term potential implications of this video screen? What other objects already exist on the field or in the stadium that can interfere with the ball? What precedents already exist?

1.) The first obvious thing that pops to mind is the goal post. Any time a pass or kick bounces off a goal post upright or crossbar, the play is dead. It is certainly not a do-over. The goal post is technically considered to be "out of bounds".

2.) Another "obstacle" on the field are referees. I am not 100% sure about this (could not find it in the rule book), but when the ball hits a referee, the ball is still live until it touches the ground or the play is otherwise ruled dead.

3.) The Stadium itself is out of bounds. Far enough out of bounds that it is generally assumed to be impossible for a player to catch the ball while the player is still in bounds after the ball has contacted a part of the stadium. So if a ball hits part of the stadium or goes into the crowd, its a dead ball, out-of-bounds.

4.) People on the sideline. Because the sideline itself (the actual white line) is so wide and all off-field personel are supposed to be behind that line, balls that contact a player or person out-of-bounds are considered to be out-of-bounds and the play is dead (even if it has not yet hit the ground). If a person on the sideline comes into the field of play, it is a penalty if the person is a player for one team or the other, and play is stopped if some other individual comes onto the field (and in this case, a play may be redone).

5.) Again, I am not sure about this one, but if the ball comes into contact with an obstacle in the air such as a flying bird or object thrown from the stands such that the ball is deflected, the play may be re-done. In the case of a neutral object, such as a bird, The play might be re-done. I don't know if this has ever happened, or if there is an actual rule. Maybe play just resumes as normal. I don't know. In the other case, if an object is thrown by someone in the stands and it hits the ball, the play will result in an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty on the home team (or maybe its determined by which team the fan who threw the object is a fan of).

So, in summary, the Cowboys video screen seems to best fit under category 3 or 5. In case 3, the ball is ruled out-of-bounds. However, it has already been established that it is possible for a player to touch the ball after it has hit the video screen, so we can't necessarilty call the play as dead and out-of-bounds, since this situation does not fulfill the assumption of case 3 that the ball cannot touch the stadium and still be interacted with by an on-field player. Well, you might ask "What about domed-stadiums?" Is there a rule that regulates the minimum height of a dome? As far as I know, no such rule exists. But so far, all donmed stadiums have been built sufficiently tall so that no human kicker or quarterback is capable of kicking or throwing the ball high enough to contact the inner dome (if somebody has an example to counter that assertion, I would love to hear or see it). So domed stadiums still fall under the assumption of case 3, the ball cannot contact the dome during the course of legal play. So does that mean we are left with only case 5? Is the Cowboy's Screen the equivalent of a bird flying in the path of the ball? Or is it equivalent to a bottle being intentionally thrown by an angry fan (in this case, Jerry Jones) to interfere with normal play?

What are the possible results of this screen's presence? Do we have to establish a vertical limit to the field-of-play? A third-dimensional sideline (or "heightline")? How is this rule to be enforced? Will "kicking the ball too high" become a penalty for kickers and punters? Will throwing the ball straight up in the air to try to hit the "heightline" or video screen be penalized as "intentional grounding"? What happens if the league eventually sees a quarterback with the arm-strenght to literally throw the ball across the field who puts a high enough arc on the ball to hit the video screen? If this quarterback is physically capable of throwing a 100 yard Hail Mary, will he hit the screen? If so, the Cowboys' video screen will hinder the ability for a team to score in such a situation. If my team is down by 6 points with the ball on the 1 yard line and only 1 second left on the clock, and I have a QB with a 100-yard-arm with the capability of throwing the ball 100 yards into the endzone. This game has the potential to go on indefinitely with the QB repeatedly throwing the ball downfield and hitting the video screen resulting in a "do-over" until either a.) he gets sacked and play ends or b.) he gets a receiver who beats a defender allowing the QB to throw a garuanteed touchdown.