NFL Exec: Digital Technology to Measure 1st Downs, Replace Chains is ‘Not Ready Yet’
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Digital measurements of first downs is doubtless to be in the NFL’s future, nonetheless it completely sounds worship chains and markers might per chance no longer be leaving the discipline any time soon.
NFL executive vp of communications, public affairs and protection Jeff Miller advised The Athletic’s Mike Jones the digital size technology is “no longer ready yet.”
“I bear that’s soundless a thought whose time is coming. After consideration, it is no longer ready yet,” Miller acknowledged, per Jones.
NFL executives experimented with digitally-measured first downs for the length of the preseason, nonetheless the tech is per chance no longer utilized for the length of the 2024 authentic season, Jones reported.
That digital monitoring diagram is per chance no longer set into operate in the authentic season till “2025 on the earliest,” Impress Maske wrote earlier this week for the Washington Submit.
That is a step reduction from the authentic timeline reported by CBS Sports activities’ Jonathan Jones, who wrote in Would possibly per chance per chance that the digital monitoring would be ancient for the length of the 2024 season “if the trial goes nicely.”
The fresh diagram made an looked in Aug. 8 preseason movement between the Detroit Lions and Contemporary York Giants. The review of the originate, which used to be brief of a first down, resulted in a prolong of plenty of minutes (h/t Awful Asserting.)
Jordan Raanan @JordanRaanan
The fresh laser technology to change the chains coming out on the discipline to measure first downs. pic.twitter.com/cGCzb6AMWI
The digital monitoring relies on “Hawk-Glimpse” technology, which is in the point out time ancient in tennis to uncover whether or no longer the ball is in or out, Michael David Smith previously reported for NBC Sports activities.
The technology, which is being ancient on the U.S. Start, uses excessive-definition cameras to grab hundreds of photos of the ball per 2nd. These allow for instantaneous review of the ball’s diagram on the road, per Sydney Boyo of CNBC.
NFL executive Gary Brantley advised Rob Maaddi of the Linked Press in July that league stadiums had been “in the installation piece” of together with these cameras to stadiums.
“Now we bear multiple stadiums with multiple dimensions inner of those stadiums with varied age,” Brantley acknowledged in July. “So we’re in actuality correct going thru the installation of inserting in the infrastructure and making certain these cameras are installed.”
When and if the fresh diagram does hobble into operate, the NFL plans to serve the chains and markers in utilize on the sidelines “as a backup for measurements and a visual indicator of where the road to originate and line of scrimmage are,” ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and Kris Rhim reported in June.
The NFL named Sony, the developer of the Hawk-Glimpse diagram, the league’s loyal technology partner in July. To boot to to the digital first-down monitoring, the league plans to debut fresh Sony conversation headsets for coaches for the length of the 2025 season, Jacob Feldman previously reported for Sportico.
