Dean Blandino, former vice president of NFL officiating, said that the replay feature for the Lions vs. Vikings game was knocked out from a microwave, per an interview on the Mike Delivers podcast
Blandino said that someone pulled a microwave out of a pantry to reheat some Thanksgiving stuffing that had been catered. “We took the microwave and plugged it in, but they plugged it into the same outlet, the same circuit that the replay system was plugged into,” Blandino said on the podcast. “So when they turned the (microwave) on the whole thing went down. So we were down for maybe like two minutes while they fixed it while the game was going on.” (RELATED: NBPA Representatives Send ‘Yes Or No’ Texts To Players About Season Returning)
“Yes, the NFL’s replay apparatus shorted out in the middle of a huge, nationally-televised game because someone wanted some stuffing.” https://t.co/RgCy7rgqVy
— The Big Lead (@thebiglead) May 12, 2020
“Thankfully we didn’t have any replay reviews,” Blandino said. “but we kind of shut down the system because we wanted to heat up the stuffing for Thanksgiving in the microwave.”
Detroit went on to beat Minnesota 16-13.