NFL: National Football Luddites?

theodp writes "The National Football League has been brainstorming with tech and communications companies on how to bring the NFL into the 21st century. Major-league sports are famously technophobic — the NFL outlaws computers and PDAs on the sidelines, in the locker room and in press-box coaching booths within 90 minutes of kickoff. But that may be about to change, which the WSJ's Matthew Futterman speculates could mean: 'Coaches selecting plays from tablet computers. Quarterbacks and defensive captains wired to every player on the field and calling plays without a huddle. Digital video on the sidelines so coaches can review plays instantly. Officials carrying hand-held screens for replays. Computer chips embedded in the ball and in the shoulder pads (or mouth guards) that track every move players make and measure their speed, the impact of their hits, even their rate of fatigue.' Part of the impetus for the changes is the chance for a windfall — the NFL's sponsorship deals with Motorola and IBM will expire after this season, and the NFL will be seeking more technology (and presumably cash) from its next technology partner(s)."

Re:NFL--not what you think

[WrongMonkey]

Only one of the Clay Millennium prize has been solved and that was by a reclusive Russian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Prize_Problems [wikipedia.org]

Re:And you choose the NFL as your example?

[Rhodri Mawr]

The only part of Association Football (soccer in your parlance) that is luddite is the use of action replays to allow the referee to make a better decision. Even that is on the agenda for change. On the contrary, Technology is being used widely in soccer, Rugby Union and Rugby League to measure the performance of players both on the pitch and off it in training.

Technologies like Prozone http://www.prozonesports.com/index.html [prozonesports.com] and opta http://www.optasports.com/sports/football.html [optasports.com] provide detailed statistics to the Management/Coaching staff. Almost none of the top league European Soccer sides do not use some variant of these technologies, and if they don't, they won't be top league for much longer. Almost every successful side owes a fair part of their recent success to video analysis both on and off the pitch.

In Wales we have grown used to seeing our Rugby Union coaches sat infront of laptops during matches, watching the laptops almost as much as the game. Players are biometrically monitored during training to ensure that they are neither slacking off nor overdoing it and risking injury during training.

Rugby League has led the way in the use of action replays for the referees to watch in order to review infringements and borderline decisions, typically during the act of scoring a try.

Cricket and tennis have championed the use of Hawk-eye http://www.hawkeyeinnovations.co.uk/ [hawkeyeinnovations.co.uk] to decide whether a ball would have hit the wicket or was in or out respectively.

So, no, soccer is not luddite, and the NFL could certainly be doing and allowing more technological innovation.

Re:Sensors ...

[hedwards]

Pssst, you forgot to log out.