One That Keeps Field Goals And Throws: Fill & Download for Free

The nets serve a couple purposes. First, there is a safety element: a net reduces the likelihood of a fan getting injured by a kicked ball. Probably more importantly, though, teams want to keep the balls that they use, so they don’t want them going into the stands as free souvenirs.In professional baseball, there is an expectation that any given ball will only be used for a very few number of pitches. Even baseballs that don’t go out of play are quickly replaced as soon as they are scuffed at all. Since a professional baseball game will use at least 100 balls anyway, it’s no problem to let fans keep any balls that go into the stands. If you to some lower-level baseball games - perhaps at a small college or something - where there isn’t as large of a budget for unlimited balls, you might have to give back a foul ball that you catch. Similarly, I believe hockey fans are generally able to keep a puck that goes over the glass; there are a lot of pucks, and pucks are cheap.Footballs, especially the high-quality ones used in the NFL, are not cheap, and there aren’t that many of them. A team will only have 36 balls for an outdoor game, or 24 for an indoor game, and there are actually only 12 of the special “K” balls that are used for field goal and extra point attempts. There can easily be more than 12 such attempts in a game; they would run out of balls if they went into the stands as souvenirs. Furthermore, a football isn’t really fungible - while every baseball is considered essentially the same as any other, quarterbacks, kickers, and other players might have particular balls that they prefer to use. This was part of the source of the Deflategate scandal; Tom Brady was implicated in essentially doctoring his preferred balls. At least some years, the Super Bowl has used a new ball on every play, to maximize the number of game-used Super Bowl balls that can be sold later, and players have complained that they therefore never get used to any one ball.So, I am not aware of any NFL stadiums that just let kicked balls go into the stands. Some college stadiums may do so. When I was in graduate school at Indiana University in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, there were no field goal nets at Memorial Stadium. The explicit purpose of this (there was a scoreboard video at every game explaining it) was to let fans get a chance at a souvenir. (Fans were also encouraged to throw opponents’ kicks back onto the field, like an opponent home run at Wrigley Field.) I’m guessing this was down to a mediocre Indiana football team trying to boost attendance and fan enthusiasm a bit with a fun gimmick, though.

Like a flashlightImagine this: you are inside a large football stadium. It is totally dark. And thanks to the magic of hypothetical examples, you are floating in mid-air.Imagine you are floating somewhere here, in complete darkness (image source)You have a flashlight with you.With you in this stadium are also other people, floating in mid-air. They too have flashlights.All of you have water balloons with you.Your task is to find other people, before they find you, and throw water balloons at them.What do you do?Well, you turn on your flashlight, and then you start sweeping, back and forth, back and forth.Suddenly, something flashes before you, you think you saw something. So you aim your flashlight back at where you thought you saw something. You move it in little circles.Damn, nothing. They must have moved away.You go back to sweeping. Every now and then you see flashes of someone, but when you look for them, they have moved away, or they are too far from you to actually reach them with your water balloons.Then, something “blips” close to you. You turn the flashlight that way, in smaller and smaller circles, the “blip” remains.There, you see them! So you stop moving the flashlight and just keep the flashlight right at them. They try to move away. But now that you are continuously shining the light at them, you can see how they are moving, and you can follow their movements. You move in and throw…Splash one!That is when you hear the call: “Light’em up!”Suddenly, you see that you are brightly lit. You can see your hands, you body, clear as day. You have several flashlights pointed right at you.You are about to become very wet…This is how aircraft radars work; they are the pilot’s “flashlight”.The radar sweeps over the space in front of the aircraft, looking for “blips”.When it finds a “blip” that is particularly interesting, it will try to narrow its search to get that blip over and over. When it finally has a good idea where the target is, it cranks up the power to max and continuously shines at the target.When it does that, it can “see” if the target tries to move out of the beam, adjust itself and keep following the target.When the plane’s radar shines at a target like that and illuminates it, the weapons of the aircraft can follow the blip in front of them (semi-active radar guided weapons).Or the weapon has its own little radar on board that can do the same as the plane’s radar (active radar guided weapons).How does the receiving aircraft know? Well, it notices this light; it sees that it is being illuminated. It is easy to differentiate between a light that shone at you for a short instant, then disappeared; a light that sweeps over you many times in short succession; a light that shines really brightly right at you and keeps you lit up all the time.Radar is radio (that is what the “ra” in radar stands for) so essentially aircraft have a little radio receiver looking for just the kind of radio transmissions that a radar emits. Then the electronics of the aircraft analyses that radio signal to figure out if it was just a search sweep, if it is trying to lock, or if it has lock, and lets the pilot know what is happening.Which returns us to the example. Why did you get clobbered in the end?Well, if you turn on a flashlight in the dark, it is very easy to see where you are. So they did not have to turn their flashlights on, instead they just sneaked up on you while you were busy with their friends. Then they aimed their flashlights at that bright light that was you, and then turned theirs on.AdditionsAfter many questions and comments, here are some additional explanations.“So, AWACS aircraft, how do they fit into this?”An Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft…An AWACS aircraft, with escort (image source)….is like putting someone way back — at your own goal — with a huge, powerful searchlight that reaches all the way across the field.When they see someone, they will use their handy little radio, telling you where the opponents are.“And stealth aircraft?”They are the ones dressed in black velvet, while everyone else have normal clothes.It is not impossible to see them, but they are much harder to notice, and you have to be closer, or use a more powerful flashlight before you can see them properly.Black clothing used for a concealing effect“What about a radar jammer, how does that work?”A radar jammer is like someone turning on a powerful strobe-light when you try to track them, like getting one of those annoyingly bright flashing LED bike lights shone right in your face.The hope is that the bright glare and the flashing will make it harder for you to track them and thus miss.“And chaff, what is that?”Defensive chaff is like dropping glitter-bombs behind you while trying to get away; the chaff is reflective, and creates a huge sparkly cloud between you and the one trying to illuminate you.Hopefully, they get distracted by the glitters long enough for you to dash to the side and out of the beam.Harley goes for offensive chaff instead. I call “cheating” for not sticking to water balloons but — hey — it’s Harley…So, an aircraft radar works kind of like a flashlight, with 100+ NM range. And someone else can know if you are shining your radar/flashlight at them from the simple fact that, suddenly, they are “lit up”; sensors sense that “oh, that is a radar, and it is shining much too brightly for my comfort”.

Kevin Durant has a ton of NBA records (20 I think). Keep in mind that I did not include his teammate records with Russell Westbrook.Regular seasonCareerYoungest player in NBA history to win an NBA scoring title.Youngest player in NBA history to join the 50–40–90 club.2nd youngest player in NBA History to record 10,000 career points.One of five players in NBA history to win the NBA scoring title in 4 or more seasons.One of seven players in NBA history to win the NBA scoring title in three consecutive seasons..SeasonOne of three players in NBA history to score 25 points or more for 40 straight games in one season.One of three players in NBA history to average 20+ points per game for an entire season as a teenager.One of four players in NBA History to record at least 400 points during the first 15 games of a season at age 21 or younger.One of eight players in NBA history to shoot 50+% on field goals, 40+% on 3-point field goals and 90+% on free throws for an entire season.One of ten players in NBA history to average 30+ points per game for an entire season having started every game.One of fifteen players in NBA history to record 30+ points in 10+ consecutive regular season games.PlayoffsCareer2nd place all-time for most consecutive playoff series averaging at least 25 points per game with 14.GameWorst field goal percentage in a playoff game. (minimum of 30 attempts): 21.2%One of three players in NBA History to record at least 35 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists on road in a series clincher.T-1st place all-time for points scored in the fourth quarter of an NBA Finals game.All-Star GameHighest points per game average in NBA All-Star history. (minimum of 3 appearances): 25.6Most field goals attempted in an NBA All-Star Game: 27Most 3-point field goals attempted in an NBA All-Star Game: 17Most consecutive NBA All-Star games with 30+ points: 3One of four players in NBA history to record a triple double in the All Star Game.