Kent Somers

azcentral sports

The NFL's decision last week to increase the height of its goal post uprights, from 30 feet to 35 feet, wasn't a big deal to most of us. Just weld or duct-tape another 5 feet of pipe to each side, right?

Turns out, it's not that easy, according to folks in the business of manufacturing goal posts. (What, you thought those things just sprouted out of the Bermuda or artificial turf?)

"It's actually pretty significant," David Moxley said. "It isn't as easy as putting 5-foot extensions on each side."

Moxley is director of sports construction sales at Sportsfield Specialties, one of a handful of companies that make goal posts. Those companies have been busy this week figuring out how to make the new goal posts.

The NFL's goal is noble: Extending the uprights will help officials determine whether a high kick is good.

The manufacturer's goals are to make sure the posts stay straight, true and in place.

This week, Moxley is waiting for the results of a structural analysis done by engineers, who will tell him whether a stadium's goal posts can be retrofitted or will have to be replaced.

There are several factors to consider. In outdoor stadiums, there is the weather.

For instance, how will heavy winds affect a 35-foot goal post? Could it topple, endangering players, fans and officials? Will the base have to be enlarged? If so, the sleeve or other device that holds it in place has to be bigger.

"I think the NFL thought, 'Just weld on 5 more feet and everything will be cool,'" said Neil Gilman, president of Gilman Gear, which also manufactures goal posts. "That's not the case."

Gilman Gear has completed its engineering study and determined that most of the goal posts it supplies to 12 NFL stadiums need to be replaced. The company is still calculating the costs of that, but a standard goal post that meets NCAA requirements is about $5,700. A new NFL goal post will be considerably more, Gilman said.

"I'm excited by the challenge," Gilman said, "but there is some liability here as well. We want to get this right and engineer it correctly and make everyone happy.

"There are safety issues here. We've been making goal posts for 50 years. If the NFL does it, will the colleges be close behind in adopting this rule? And in the college game, there is a lot of rushing the field (and) jumping on the goal post.

"We have to engineer this the right way so it's stable, durable. Weather is our most important concern because wind is a huge, huge factor."

Every stadium is different, and some have unique concerns. The University of Phoenix Stadium field slides into and out of the stadium on a tray. The current goal posts can be taken down fairly easily; crews did it daily at the Cardinals' training camp last summer.

(Interestingly enough, the field cannot slide while the goalposts are in place. That was a fail-safe installed to prevent the goalposts hitting anything while the field is moving.)

When the NFL approached Gilman, it asked him to figure out the costs for a 15-foot increase in height. He ran the numbers, and the NFL "realized that was too much."

"It's clear to me the folks on the Competition Committee weren't taking into account what the costs would be," Gilman said. "You realize it's a bunch of coaches saying, 'Wouldn't it be nice if …'

"But someone has to build it. Even shipping these things is a challenge, because not many trucking companies can handle something 35 feet long."

Gilman has one other challenge: painting a continuous piece of aluminum that's 35 feet long when your existing paint booth is just 30 feet long.

Extending the upright isn't the only rule change involving goal posts this year. Players now will be penalized for dunking the ball over the crossbar.

The Saints' Jimmy Graham caused a delay of 20 minutes last year in Atlanta when a dunk tilted the crossbar.

Critics of the rule complained the NFL was taking the fun out of the sport. But the move had been copied so much that it had become a cliche. Good riddance.

Reach Somers at 602-444-8335 or kent.somers@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @KentSomers. Somers also can be heard Mondays at 4 p.m. on The Drive on Fox Sports 910 (AM).