CBS Fixing NFL Score Ticker That Everyone Thought Was A Penalty Flag

The NFL ticker during CBS football broadcasts this year had a problem — the yellow marker at the bottom of the screen that showed the final score looked just like the yellow marker that indicated a flag had been thrown.

The problem was part of the CBS redesign of its bottom-line ticker. Previously, the winning team had been highlighted in yellow, but the giant yellow bar that said “FINAL” wasn’t there. Had CBS chosen to put the bar in a different part of the screen or used a different color it may not have been an issue, but the similarities between that and the “PENALTY” indicator was just too much for some fans.

After hundreds of fans took to Twitter about the problem, CBS has responded. The network announced that it will be changing the NFL scores ticker so it doesn’t look so much like the penalty indicator. Deadspin’s John Koblin wrote that he had been in contact with CBS, and a source told him that the graphic will change next week.

But CBS noted that the change wouldn’t be immediate, and fans watching games in Week 2 had to endure what appeared to be an endless stream of penalties.

On Reddit, where fans in /r/NFL discussed the glitch, some commenters said they came up with makeshift solutions.

“I put a piece of blue masking tape over it. Problem solved!” one person wrote.

Other commenters said it was a lack of foresight on the part of CBS to plan it that way.

“It’s seriously annoying. How do they not realize that we all associate that color with a penalty?”

CBS has not yet indicated when the NFL score ticker will be fixed to stop looking like there’s a penalty on every play.