Originally posted by Theo Wizzago
I can tell you I've seen this several times through the years and my understanding is that what YOU see is the football going over the bar... but, in truth, it's going under it. Something-something-mutter-mumble about the graphics but it's basically that. The graphics won't show a ball going UNDER... just the ball and the crossbar is what gets phased out. (shrug) It is what it is, I guess. Yep, this.
People forget, the field graphics are not a fully-rendered 3-D model. You're not looking at goalposts... you're basically looking at a drawing of goalposts painted on the flat field. So, whether the ball crosses the plane of the back of the endzone 1 foot above the ground or 20 feet above the ground, it will appear to be above the drawing of the goalposts painted on the ground.
In real life, if the ball crossed the plane of the back of the end zone 1 foot above the ground, it would, of course, be a missed FG attempt, because it would be under the crossbar. And the sim knows how high the ball is at that moment.