The 3D view draws the same plays as the top-down field: a painted field with the home team's logo in the end zones, goal posts, a stadium, and simple board-game players in team colors with their numbers on their backs. The ball is drawn at its real size, so it is small from far away: it spirals on passes and turns end over end on kicks, and in a wide shot a faint trail follows it through the air so you can keep your eye on it.
It shows only what the field has already shown, so it never gets ahead of the game. Play, pause, speed and the play steps all work as before, because the 3D view follows the same clock.
Above the field, pick Top-down, 3D sideline or Behind the QB. The 3D sideline camera sits high on the sideline and slides with the ball. The camera behind the quarterback sits low behind the offense and looks down the field. Your pick is remembered on this device for a year, and it replaces the older Sideline camera button.
Until you pick, a large screen (a laptop or a tablet held sideways) starts in 3D sideline, and a phone or a slower device starts in the top-down field, which is lighter on the battery. The picker above the field is always there, so any device can switch to 3D at any time.
Between plays the offense huddles a few yards behind the ball, the quarterback in the middle calling the play, then breaks with a clap and jogs to the line. The defense lines up, and often shifts just before the snap. On some plays a receiver or tight end goes in motion and arrives at his spot right at the snap. Players far from the ball, like wide receivers after a long play, go straight to their spots. In the last two minutes of a half the offense skips the huddle.
The huddle fits in the short walk to the line the field already had, so the game clock and every play are exactly as before; it only looks quicker at a faster speed and slower in slow motion. Skip to snap, next to the camera buttons and under a 3D replay, jumps straight to the snap of the play on screen.
A seven-person officiating crew works the game, as on TV, in 3D and on the top-down field: the referee in the white cap behind the offense, the umpire, the down judge and line judge on the line at the sidelines, the side and field judges and the back judge deep. They signal what the play's result already shows, and only once it is on screen: both arms up for a touchdown, a point toward the goal for a first down, arms waved low for an incomplete pass, a time out, and the referee's signal for the foul after a flag, which lands where the foul was. On field goals and extra points the two officials under the posts raise both arms for good or wave it off low for no good; on a miss the one on the side it went by waves first. A bean bag marks a fumble or where a punt is caught, the chain crew moves the chains after a first down, and on a close one the chains come out for a moment. None of it changes a result or makes a play longer.
Every player is drawn from his real height and weight: linemen are big and wide, receivers and corners lean, and kickers and punters smaller, with lighter pads and a single-bar facemask. The home team wears dark jerseys and the visitors white, as in the NFL: the home jersey is the team's darkest color, the away jersey white with numbers and trim in team colors, and both teams' helmets carry their crest from the logo builder on each side. Up close, as in a replay or behind the quarterback, a player's last name shows on his back above his number. The uniforms are generic, made only from each team's colors and crest.
The stands fill to the game's real attendance, the same number Team Stats shows once the game kicks off, so a winning team at a fair ticket price plays to a full house and a struggling one sees empty seats in the upper rows and the corners. Home fans wear the home colors and the visitors have a small block of their own on the far side. The home crowd gets on its feet on third and fourth down when the home team is defending, and each team's fans stand for its big plays, but only once the play is over and the result is on screen. Late in a blowout, sections start to empty, and the fans who leave do not come back. Opened before kickoff, the stands show a typical crowd until you reload.
Each team has its own sideline, as in the NFL, and the bench across the field from the camera is drawn (the near one would block the view). The players not on the field stand, sit, pace, and look at tablets on the benches, in their team's colors and numbers, with the head coach and the coordinators in caps and headsets with their play sheets, a few staff, coolers, a kicking net, equipment trunks, and heaters on a cold day or fans on a hot one. More of the bench stands on third and fourth down, in the red zone and late in a close game, and the whole bench jumps up with arms raised on its team's touchdown, but only once the play has shown it. Players coming on or going off jog between the field and the bench before the snap. Above the field, Watch from picks the home or the away sideline: the camera moves across the field and the other team's bench is the one you see. If your player is in the game you start on the other team's side, so your own bench is the one you see, and your pick is remembered on this device. On a slow device the sideline is the first thing drawn more simply, and it goes before the crowd does.
With Sound on above the field, the 3D view adds a thump when the ball leaves the kicker's foot, a short chime after a touchdown with the words "Touchdown" and the team's name at the top of the picture, and a lift in the crowd that follows how big the play was, louder for the home crowd on its team's scores. All of it is made in your browser, plays only once the play is on screen, and stays off until you turn Sound on. With Reduced motion on, the crowd holds steady instead of swelling.
When your own player makes a big play (a touchdown, sack, interception, field goal, a catch of 25 or more yards in the air or a diving catch, or a gain of 20 or more yards), a name graphic appears at the bottom left for about four seconds with his name, number, position and his stat line through that play, like 12 YDS, 3 REC, 1 TD. It shows only after the play is on screen and works on the top-down field too.
Each home team plays in its own city's stadium: a dome, an open-air bowl with light towers, or a retractable roof that is closed for rain, snow, real cold or heat and strong wind, and open otherwise. The end zones are painted in the home team's colors with its nickname, with orange pylons at the corners and padding in the home color on the goal posts. Outdoors you see the game's own weather: rain or snow falling, flags behind the end zones and the streamers on top of the goal posts blowing the way the wind blows, and in the cold the players' breath on the close camera shots. In rain or snow the field gets muddier as the game goes on, counting only the plays already shown. A late kickoff gets darker through the second half and the stadium lights take over, at the same times as on the top-down field. Under a roof there is no weather and the light never changes.
The big moments get their own beats. Watched from the opening kickoff, a game starts with the coin toss: the captains meet the referee at midfield, he flips the coin and it lands between them; the play-by-play says who won. When the clock passes two minutes in the second or fourth quarter, a Two-minute warning banner goes up. After the half's last play the teams jog off to their sidelines and a halftime card shows the score and the first half's team stats, worked out the same way as Team Stats from the first half only, and the teams come back out for the second half kickoff. None of it changes a play, and none of it appears before the field has shown it.
After a touchdown the scorer's teammates mob him: the first few to get there close in for a hug, a pat on the helmet, a leap or a high five. A player run by a person does his own touchdown celebration, the same one the top-down field shows; everyone else celebrates with arms up. Nobody taunts.
If this device cannot draw 3D or the picture stops drawing, the top-down field comes back at once with a short note. If the device is only slow, the 3D view does not give up quickly. It ignores the first few seconds while the page settles, then, if it stays under 27 frames a second for about eight seconds of play, it lowers its own quality one step at a time (the sidelines' and the officials' detail first, then pixel ratio, weather particles, the huddle's small gestures, the crowd's detail and the names on the jerseys, the huddle itself and the helmet crests, shadows, then the crowd, until players simply walk to their spots; body types stay at every step) and watches again after each step. A screen held at 30 frames a second (a phone saving battery, for one) counts as keeping up. Only if it drops under 20 at the lowest step does the top-down field come back, with a note and a Show 3D anyway button, which keeps 3D on this device from then on. If you opened the page with ?view=3d it never switches away for being slow: it keeps drawing at the lowest quality and says so. A paused game or a hidden tab is never counted as slow, and nothing about the game changes.
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