PORTLAND, Maine — It takes more than a laser to throw the GOAT off his game.
Someone apparently shined a green laser pointer at Patriots quarterback Tom Brady during the AFC championship game last Sunday. It's now the subject of an NFL investigation. But just how dangerous is the offense?
NEWS CENTER Maine spoke with an optometrist in Portland.
Dr. Peter Hall of Portland Eye Care has decades of ocular observation under his instruments. He's looked in the eyes of the rich, the handsome, the talented and the New England Patriots, though he can’t say which ones.
"I'm not allowed to say who, there's patient confidentiality," he said.
But Hall can talk about what treating pro football players was like.
He says he was taken through beautiful and "magnificent" training areas underneath Gillette Stadium. He also revealed that most NFL players, like Tom Brady, have pretty good eyesight.
"I think he’s got really good vision," Hall said. “Most of these guys have really good vision. It makes sense that they would. Their whole job is basically spatial coordination and catching balls and judging distances."
In terms of a laser's impact on an NFL player or anyone for that matter, Hall told us, the consequences depend on the laser's strength.
A low-powered toy laser, especially if aimed at the side or periphery of the eye, probably would not have much impact.
A high-powered laser would present a different scenario.
"If you shine it through the pupil, the part of our eye that gets big and small … at the back of our eye, like a camera film, we have a tissue called the retina. It's very thin and very fragile and you can burn it. That's not likely to happen with the little lasers for toys or pointers, but a high intensity laser particularly right in that spot could cause permanent damage."
Hall is also a veterinarian and says the GOAT, much like a real goat, most likely has good peripheral vision.
What we don’t know: how well rams see, particularly ones from Los Angeles.