It was a fake.
I hate to break this news to the 30% of those who commented on a DC TV station's video of a 110-yard Shaun Suisham field goal who actually believed that the Washington Redskins' kicker booted a football through the goal posts from the opposite end line.
WUSA, channel 9 in Washington, will be carrying the Skins' preseason games and the marketing department was charged with finding a way to draw attention to that fact. Late last week a video that appeared to show Suisham stepping into the ball on end line and launching a rocket that split the uprights on the far end of the field. They posted it on their website with the following paragraph:
Shaun Suisham may not look like an intimidating guy at first glance. At 6' tall and 200 lbs. Shaun is considered small when it comes to NFL players. However, when it comes to leg strength and kick accuracy, he's in a league of his own. Check out this video captured at Redskins Park and tell us what you think.
Of course, tongue was planted firmly in cheek as this was written, but perhaps many of today's web surfers need an emoticon of some sort to point out things like this.
Rich Haber, sports director of WUSA, said, "We've had a ton of e-mail on this, and about 30 percent of people think it's real, which is frightening," Haber said.
So frightening, in fact, that the WUSA marketing department decided to put out a "making of the Suisham field goal video" video.
It was a pretty simple cut and paste job. A cutout of a ball in flight was superimposed on to a shot taken by a camera that followed an imaginary 110-yard arc from end line to goal post. It probably took some tweaking to make it look realistic and, bingo, Shaun Suisham is Superkicker.
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