Eleven cameras are installed on the practice field at the NovaCare Complex, allowing Patrick Dolan and his team to film, record and review every Eagles move at any time, and a new oversized 7-foot by 12-foot video screen gives coaches and players instant access to replays of the previous snap seconds after it was taken.
Technology is certainly a great thing, and Dolan, the team's vice president of football technology, is providing it to the Eagles.
“Players and coaches can see it right away and make corrections right away,” said Dolan, who joined the Eagles in 2013. “This big board is like the video screens at Lincoln Financial Field, and players can look up and get instant feedback. It's new for us. We've been working on tablets. We were the first team to use them in practice in 2014. Other teams are using the boards, so we're ramping up on that.”
Dolan and his team are busy working around the clock as one of the key groups that keep the Eagles running smoothly. In addition to filming practice time and actual games and editing the footage to hand over to the coaching staff, the football technology team (back in the day they were called the video crew) has a lot of other responsibilities, including making sure the conference room is running smoothly, working with the coaching staff to ensure they have scheme coverage, perfecting the audio technology for the practice sound system, and more. Every play is filmed, and there are two cameras in each period.
Dolan employs seven full-time employees, including one intern, and also helps out scouts who shoot video with handheld and pole-cam cameras.
“One of the things that's really been great is the whole team has been there,” said Dolan, who has more than 30 seasons of experience in the field and has been with the Eagles since 2013. “This is a complex undertaking and it takes the whole team to make it work. The men and women who are with me are outstanding and highly valued. What we've accomplished wouldn't be possible without everyone playing a big role in the process.”
Like the rest of the football industry, video technology is rapidly evolving and is a world away from when Dolan began his career as a graduate assistant at the University of Pittsburgh. Back then, he was working with 16mm film, heat-splicing pieces of film together, which is where the term “cut-up” originated. Now, everything is digital, everything is fast and incredibly accurate.
During training camp, the Eagles practice on the field in the morning and walk-throughs in the afternoon. Dolan's team films the walk-throughs with five to seven cameras, then has a team meeting in the late afternoon. It doesn't end when practice ends, and it starts again early the next morning.
“We want to be efficient and not have meetings being interrupted by some glitch,” said Dolan, who worked with the Steelers for 10 seasons and built the Browns' video department from scratch in 1998. “This is my 37th year and every day is something new. I'm up at 5:45 every morning so I go for a walk, go on a bike ride or do some kind of workout somewhere every day.”
“But I love this job. I love practicing and the game-day experience is like no other. We're part of a team and our mission is to win. This isn't a 9-to-5 job, it's a 7-to-8 job. If you don't have the passion, this job isn't for you. If I would have told 12-year-old Pat Dolan that I would be working in the NFL for 37 years, I would have signed on the spot. With the people I'm with, such a great staff to work with and an organization that's committed to winning, it's just awesome to come into this building every day and put in the work and do my part to help the Philadelphia Eagles win. That's what it's all about for me, and really, all of us. That's what we do here every day.”
