Getty Images/Al Bello
The NFL is the most valuable sports league in the world, with all its franchises worth well over $150 billion, but when it comes to technology, it's lagging badly in many areas.
While other major sports leagues try to eliminate human error as much as possible, the NFL continues to use chain gangs to inaccurately time crucial first downs.
This is truly ludicrous when you consider the incredible technology used to precisely measure dynamic offside lines in soccer around the world. In just a few seconds, they can match a moving player to the exact moment the ball is kicked to determine whether he is offside or onside. Yet in the NFL, they have to use metal chains to determine first downs.
That could all be different this season: During the preseason, the NFL experimented with a system developed by the makers of Hawk-Eye, the software used to call lines in professional tennis, that would have replaced the chain gang.
However, the NFL decided not to use it this season.
“The NFL will not use an electronic system to measure first downs during this year's regular season after continuing testing during the preseason, sources say. It could be used in the regular season as early as 2025,” The Washington Post's NFL reporter Mark Maske said. He said on Twitter Late Monday night.
Frankly, this is an embarrassment for the NFL: They have the technology to make the game better and they're not implementing it.
I don't know what's delaying it, but this is something that should be in place for this season. When a company the size of the NFL has the opportunity to automate something, they're going to do it.
