The Lions sent Sunday’s game against the Titans into overtime with a 46-yard Hail Mary touchdown on the final play of regulation. And DirecTV sent some viewers to commercial at the worst possible time.
Just as Lions receiver Titus Young was catching the deflected pass and falling into the end zone, the game went to a commercial for some viewers who were watching the game on DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket feed.
“I don’t have all the details, but it was our error. We sincerely apologize to you and all the viewers who missed the TD,” DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer told me via email, after I inquired about the game cutting out on my own TV.
This isn’t the first time a game has mistakenly been taken to a commercial break while live game action was going on, but this is about the worst possible time it could have happened. Fans who pay for the Sunday Ticket package expect to be able to see every play, and this was a bad example of that not happening.