Gang Green Nation
Technology is late getting incorporated into NFL game play
Much was made about the importance of accurate field positioning in the AFC championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. Specifically, this play drew the ire or many, many... many... many people.
Despite the caption of that tweet, I personally have no idea where that ball is and whether it crossed the first down line. Importantly, the referees must’ve come to the same conclusion, as they ruled it as “stands,” which is NFL referee code for “We really aren’t sure so we aren’t going to change what was originally called.”
This call was pivotal in the final outcome of a game that was decided by 3 points, which likely ratcheted up the general anger that the NFL doesn’t have a better system in place to accurate spot the ball. One such system is the use of technology that is used in other sports like tennis and soccer to determine the precise location of the ball at a given second with fans questioning why the NFL has not adopted it.
That’s a really great question. Thankfully though, one of the benefits of social media is that it allows one to access many different perspectives. In this case, that different perspective came from Sam Schwartzstein, who is the analytics specialist on Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football broadcast and answered that very question.
To quote that tweet, he said:
Notes on using Optical Tracking for measurements: There is already a chip in the ball in the NFL. It’s in the middle of the ball on the pane (4 leather panes to make up the football) opposite where you inject air.
What you are pointing out here is optical tracking technology. There are between 6-12 cameras at an event that can triangulate the position of the ball. This only works if the ball is 75% visible by light to let all the cameras see the ball and track.
Football also has 3 concepts foreign to Tennis and Soccer.
1. Possession
2. Down (by contact)
3. Shape of the football
1. In football to be we need to establish possession of the football. When the player crosses X plane do they have the ball. All other line technology is based on the ball relation to a line, football is about relationship between the ball and player as well as balls relationship to the location
2. Down, you can have the ball but then we need to establish when and where the player was down. This is a judgement call based on the possession of the player. Add in the fact a player can be down but then he hasn’t been touched, so you have to wait until you can see that they’ve been touched
3. Shape of football. You’re looking at tennis and the ball is the a sphere. In a sphere every point on...
