I’ve been proposing this for years. You could also put sensors in the feet and knees to determine in-bounds and when a player does down.
6 thoughts on “Football Physics”
Comments are closed.
I’ve been proposing this for years. You could also put sensors in the feet and knees to determine in-bounds and when a player does down.
Comments are closed.
The replay system also seems fairly pathetic technologically. The cameras they’re all using have the frame-by-frame millisecond-or-better timestamping – use it. If shot #1 shows -when- the knee is down, and shot #2 is a good shot of -where- the ball is at all times for that play, then the answer to “Where does the ball go?” or “Did he break the plane first?” is in the timestamp.
My review system would timesync all the cameras to a single jogwheel. “Simply” scrubbing along in shot #1 until “Hey, his knee is down -here-” simultaneously scrubs along in all the other video – so you have 5+ views of precisely where the ball was when that happened.
Some of the rules themselves seem like they could use tweeks if we’re shifting towards more replay involvement.
The Problem is the cost, the NFL won’t put cameras on the plane of the end zone as has been recommended several times cause of cost concerns. So putting sensors in every players knee pads and gloves along with a sensor net, unless someone like a Lockheed/Raytheon/Microsoft/Intel willing to do a sponsorship and provide it for free for advertising it will never happen.
That’s a ridiculous reason. The money the NFL makes they could do this and it not even feel it in the bottom line. There has to be some other reason. Like they want some subjectivity in the rules so they can push outcomes in favor of the large market teams that drive ratings and who’s fans buy the most gear. The coverage has skewed that way for decades, it’s getting harder and harder to believe the refs aren’t skewing that way too.
It is completely ridiculous , but the NFL owners are completely ridicules, have you seen Jim Irsay, Mark Davis? These guys couldn’t find there way out of a paper bag, let alone look beyond there profit margin..And they aren’t the only ones most of the league is “Thanks Dad” Owners
The NFL could adapt tire-pressure sensor technology for the footballs…
I always thought it was ludicrous to measure the first down to the millimeter when the spot is complete guesswork anyway.