Put A Chip In The Ball
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.
Is this Pete Rozelle’s 1st appearance on the draw play?
“Normal Closet – Do Not Open Without a Warrant”
Nice touch.
Are people in the other closets?
If it’s not accurate it’s bc they cheaped out. Technologicaly, it’s not a super difficult problem.
“Also it’ll somehow screw over the Lions or Raiders in a game.”
I feel bad for the Lions fans, but this will definitely happen to them.
… and help the Patriots
Remember when they did that with hockey pucks?
Comet tails on hard passes and slapshots. NHL: Rock the Rink on PS1, anybody?
How far have on-screen graphic overlays come since then? The First Down Line was only the start of it all. Dammit, I want to see long passes coming out as the QB casting Eldritch Blast or some shit. Monday Night Football sponsored by Roll20.
Olympics comics perhaps they did add flag football as a sport being played
Here’s whats’ going to happen.
They will be able to match the chip in the ball to a position on the field in real time on a replay screen. Replay official will be able to pick a frame, and there will be a graphical representation of exactly where the ball is on the field. This will work perfectly.
Now, the catch.
It’ll require something like 30+ cameras in the stadium. It’ll require a $100k per stadium setup fee or something like that. It’ll be patented by a techbro company with a name like “FirstDownz” or “BallZpot” or something. It’ll have a fee of $30,000 a game until it leaves patent in 26 years. It’ll be critical in 4 plays a year on average and just supplemental information that wasn’t necessarily needed in about 500 plays. The cost per “correct play that could only have been called by this system” will average out to around $300k to $500k.
The Future ™
“VAR!…VAR!…VAR!…VAR!…VAR!…”
Another option is for every ref to have a button which wirelessly connects to some form of play timer. The instant any official sees the player is down he slaps that button and both play time and ball position are captured. Time captured to ensure the accuracy of position as well as to give the umpire the option of adjusting actual end of play time by so much time forward or back to give a more precise ball position.
It rubs the chip on the ball it does this whenever its told
BTW, was anyone else expecting this to turn into a Chip Kelly joke?
The problem with the “chip in the ball” idea is that it’s never been as simple as people think. It works for sports like tennis, soccer, and baseball: all sports with spherical objects and low traffic that provide good sightlines. In hockey, it was used for glow puck, but was nowhere even close to accurate enough to make actual decisions on goals. It was a gimmick.
Technology is advancing and maybe we’ve finally gotten to a point where it is feasible, in football the problem with optical tracking is that as often as not you can’t see the ball. And the problem with using an actual chip is that the ball isn’t a sphere, so you need to account for the ball’s orientation, which requires like 5 separate chips, not one.
Happy 1500th Dave!