Posted on 08/02/2014 12:45:22 PM PDT by TaxPayer2000
As a hardcore baseball guy, I often wonder why people needlessly waste their time on all those other, lesser sports. But I suppose everyone has a right to their insane opinions.
In any case, football fans may want to keep an eye on this development: The NFL announced this week that it will be using RFID tracking chips on players during select games in the 2014 season. The high-tech chips — RFID stands for radio-frequency identification — will generate precise positioning data on each player on every play.
Football Uniforms Throughout History
For the initial rollout, the RFID system will be used in 17 of the NFL’s 31 stadiums. (Astute sports fans will note that the NFL has 32 teams, but the Giants and the Jets share the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.) When squaring off in these stadiums, players will actually be tracked by two RFID chips — one in each shoulder pad. Data is broadcast in real-time to provide information on positioning, velocity, direction, distance run and even force-of-impact.
All of that data is instantly analyzed by the NFL’s MotionWorks system, which then generates statistics for every play. The data can also be instantly incorporated into the visual elements of the TV broadcast. In fact, the MotionWorks system crunches the numbers so quickly that graphics can be added within the broadcast’s standard two-second delay.
Should Kids Play Football?
The upshot of all this is that viewers — not to mention coaches and team executives — will be able to track every players’ movement in the often chaotic scrum of the typical NFL football game. When a blocking assignment is missed or a receiver is suddenly wide open in the end zone, fans will know precisely which player screwed up, and when and where.
The system will also generate an entire new field of statistics for fans to obsess over. In fact, the MotionWorks system is part of a larger initiative the NFL is calling “Next Generation Statistics.” The stadiums participating in the 2014 program: Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, New England, New Orleans, Oakland, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington.
via: Fastcolabs.com
Credit: NFL
This must mean on their uniforms while they are playing.
Not under their skin — while they are punching out women in elevators.
As a self professed avid baseball fan, how would you feel if a reliable electronic system was developed to automatically call balls and strikes?
We don’t want them to get lost on the field
The league might should consider electronic monitoring devices for a lot of their players during the off season too.
Those were the article writers words, not mine. I am not much of a baseball fan myself, but i would think that an electronic system to automatically call balls and strikes could only enhance the game.
Suggested that a long time ago.
Off the field is where they really need them.
Are you kidding me? This is long overdue.
How about mini-MRIs in the helmets to instantly record brain damage and report it up on the screen.
Put these chips on the ball and quit arguing about first downs and touchdowns.
Always amazes me to see referees down on their knees squinting to see if the nose of the football is past the end of the chain. Using such precise measurements is absurd when you consider that on first down the chains are set merely by ‘eye-ball’ from the sidelines.
They don't need chips for that, just John Madden on instant replay.
What happens when the statistics show that Michael Sam is not NFL material?
But you have to ask yourself if this isn't just another stepping stone to getting the public to accept rfid chips for themselves - new world order and all that...
Remember that time Al Gore Jr. got lost in the woods? Why did anyone go looking for him?
Okay sorry. I am not a huge baseball fan myself but enjoy local teams. It seems to me that such a system if not feasible now soon will be, and I would not object. Umps could still make calls if system went down, and also call strikes on checked swing.
Then he moves to the broadcast booth @ $1 million / yr.
Sounds like something that would have been done by The Simpsons, by now.
Or what happens when the real data shows he isn’t nfl material but is manipulated to show that he is?
It’s not the data that counts but who counts the data.
“What happens when the statistics show that Michael Sam is not NFL material?”
Nothing, they cut someone else because they are afraid of being called homophobic and excoriated by the homo-loving press.
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