It was a wild and wet afternoon on Sunday in Chicago for Bears-49ers.
Earlier in the day, rain in Chicagoland made for a terrible playing surface at Soldier Field. As the game wore on, and Justin Fields did Justin Fields things for the Bears (+6.5), Chicago ground out an upset 19-10 win.
But not before the rain picked back up in a downpour late in the fourth quarter. Conditions got so poor on the field the wetness actually washed away all the field markings. As a result, Fox had to add digital field markings through the end of the contest so that viewers could discern what was happening on their TVs.
Yes, this was wild:
these are "reset the NES and blow in it" graphics pic.twitter.com/bvsQ9uEK1t
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) September 11, 2022
I have to admit: I wasn’t sure what I was quite looking at first glance. Was this a throwback to the eight-bit video game era or an NFL football game in 2022? Despite the inclement weather, kudos to the Fox crew for trying to finish the broadcast well.
NFL fans had lots of thoughts about the end-game conditions at Soldier Field
The field was so destroyed the computers had to superimpose the field markings by the end. pic.twitter.com/WVBRud8olJ
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) September 11, 2022
Field looks like a Van Gogh. pic.twitter.com/MTVv3EkeEl
— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) September 11, 2022
Fox had to superimpose images onto Soldier Field because the rain washed the paint off of the field pic.twitter.com/YRUTs8xUQc
— All Things White Sox (@things_sox) September 11, 2022
@drewmagary ICYMI Soldier Field is so wet right now that they had to digitally show the field markings on TV and the team did a “slip and slide” into the end zone to celebrate the win. pic.twitter.com/qwayghTqFi
— EmKayDubs (@EmKayDubs) September 11, 2022
Soldier Field looks like a graphics glitch. Like on an old nintendo where you'd have to restart the game
— The Dragon Sin of Wrath (John M) (@DonCoyote) September 11, 2022
Yikesssss https://t.co/mGbWRnd6LC
— Jeremy Schilling (@jschil) September 11, 2022
Thank you. This was wild https://t.co/djp4DmxmRe
— McMurray, Pete (@PeteMcMurray) September 11, 2022
This was wild https://t.co/PE38gldjvb
— Open Kerri 🏈☘️🎧🌮 (@KLWally) September 11, 2022
