UFO at NFL

NBC's cameras apparently captured a strange flying object at an NFL game on October 23.

As NBC's cameras returned from a commercial break and focused on the historic, triple-steepled St. Louis Cathedral in the city nicknamed the Big Easy, a couple of lit objects seemed to streak across the darkening sky -- and they've yet to be definitively identified.

Viewed in real-time, it's hard to see much more than something flashing across the screen. But a frame-by-frame scrutiny of the video reveals a rod-shaped object topped with brightly lit dots.

The standard explanation is that the camera focused on something extremely close to the lens, that was moving too fast for the shutter speed, so it blurs into a line, or "rod." I remember watching an episode of "Monster Hunters" that examined this phenomena in great detail to show how the mysterious "rods" show up on cameras. However, while this is the likely explanation in this case, there is one twist:

But one little frame of the video may be the one little problem that could rule out the insect theory. Amazingly, the frame reveals the mystery object is moving behind one of the cathedral towers. But how could that be if it was only an insect?
"The object is not going behind the cathedral -- it's actually in front of it," Dantonio said. "But because of the saturated CCD [charge-coupled device used in digital imaging], it looks like it's going behind. And when you see those three dots or lights [on the object], I think they're wing beats."
But when Dantonio took a closer look at the single video frame in question, he began to bend a little.
"Yeah, that sure does look weird. I won't say it's not interesting, but I'll tell you right now: I'm sure that there's a conventional explanation and I believe firmly that this is something very close to the camera."