If you’ve watched football over the last decade, you have undoubtedly heard many people, yourself likely included, yell at the TV to “put a chip in the ball”. It was probably shortly followed up with a solid “For Fucks Sake”. Chip meaning computer chip with the intention of tracking the position of the ball so that first downs and touchdowns barely along the line can be calculated. I know that I myself have clamored for the chip at times. It can be very frustrating to have a play go undetermined or called questionably when the technology exists to potentially clarify it.
Well, good news. The NFL is finally giving it a test run this preseason. It isn’t necessarily a computer chip but more of an optical tracking system. They have the ability to determine the position and shape of the ball through sensors. Rejoice! The NFL is finally moving towards modernity in an aspect that has long annoyed the fans.
But after a few years of thinking about it off and on, our excitement should be properly tempered because I’m not sure how much it will actually help. The NFL has actually had chips in the balls for years, to gather all sorts of data. It hasn’t been the sort of real-time sensor that identified the precise location of the ball though. I think the sensor determination will be helpful in very specific cases that unfortunately aren’t that common. Namely, I think it will be helpful in goaline scrums. It’ll be used during replays to try and determine if the ball crossed the plane.
The biggest problem I see with any ball-tracking tech is that it only knows the position of the ball. It does not know when a player is down. That is still determined by the human eye of the referee. In a 4th and 1 type QB sneak we might be able to know if the ball crossed the line, but if the footage still obscures when the QB is officially down…it won’t really help will it? Did the ball get over the line after the player had already touched the ground? They will have to cross-reference the ball data with the replay footage to get an accurate reading. This actually probably would give an accurate reading if you match the ball’s position to the frame the player is down. But this is only going to be used on the rare challenge plays, not every down. It’ll take too long. But when the technology exists to get this right, fans are going to clamor for it constantly. If they use it all the time, games are going to take 6 hours. We already spend too much time waiting.
Another issue is the accuracy. Football is a game of inches, of centimeters. This positioning tech has no room for error. If it is not pinpoint, it cannot be trusted to tell you if the ball barely crossed or missed the plane in a goaline scrum. Tracking tech is pretty cool but think about how when you watch your position on your maps app and can tell the phone isn’t quite on target. It gets it close enough, scarily close at times, but it’s not perfect. Games can be lost on an inch. It has to be spot on.
So this is good news, but there’s no reason to get hype. Think about how often this tech will actually be needed during a game. It might be once or twice. The chain gang isn’t going away (players need a visual to see the first down marker on the field, they don’t see the fancy yellow line). It will not solve the problem of knowing when a player is down.
Also it’ll somehow screw over the Lions or Raiders in a game.
