New Orleans – Sunday in Super bowl Lix, Ron Torbert and his stars crew will officer the game between the Chiefs And Eagles. As usual, they will spot the ball and assess – with the help of the chain gang – which is and is not a first.
In the meantime, in the background, the Nfl Will continue to test advanced technology that can not only relegate the chain gang – but could finally see the end of the officials completely identifying the ball.
Caesars Superdome will be equipped with the Sony Hawk-Eye Skeletrack system, a 14-camera system that specifically monitors more than two dozen skeletal points on a player’s body. This system, as well as tokens in football balloons and the other 18 specific cameras strategically placed around the stadium, can all be combined to harvest an entirely computerized model that potentially follows where the ball is when the players are broken down, if anyone ‘One reached a first at the bottom or if they have marked.
The NFL worked with the Hawk-Eye technology since 2021. And even if Sunday’s game will have all the technological bells and whistles, the league still needs time for technology to progress even before considering implementing a system that is still in development.
“I would say a few years. And the reason why I say that it is because where we would like to arrive … We still have a little to do,” said Sports Kimberly Fields on Monday, the please of football operations of the NFL.
Given all the technical and operational variables at stake, the NFL cannot confirm that this technology will ultimately be possible, and there is no specific calendar on the development of technology. And even if technology finally arrives in a place where computers could replace managers identifying the ball, there will always be a major question to find out if the NFL and the team owners will have an appetite to make such a change.
Starting with the 2023 season, the NFL began to test virtual line virtual technology in a few stadiums before making its intention to test it public during the 2024 pre-season. Hope was virtual of Gain would become The main way to measure a primary conversion. But technology – and the process of use – have struck road bumps in pre -season and could not be implemented during the season.
This technology does not follow the ball, which has become a false common idea in the league. The ball has a chip, but that does not interface with the six cameras used for virtual line virtual technology.
But using these six cameras, as well as 12 online online cameras, plus the 14 cameras for Skeletrack make a total of 32 cameras which could possibly be at 30 stadiums from the NFL, creating a camera ring around the stadium which “gives you A complete view of what’s going on in the field, “said Fields.
Hawk-Eye technology has been used for years in tennis, and some football leagues have adopted it to determine when the ball crosses the line for a goal. Major League Baseball used Hawk-Eye for a Future Future Automated Zoneand the The NBA is now in its second year with technology.
But American Gridiron Football has its own unique challenges. The 22 bodies closely grouped made a lot of data points. When a player is excluded – and which part of the body belongs to whom – can be difficult for a complex network of cameras and computers to determine instantly. In addition, although there is a chip in the ball, it is not located in the nose of the ball, which matters.
Speaking during his annual Super Bowl press conference on Monday, the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that the use of technology to determine the first stockings was “complicated”.
“Obviously, you have a lot of humanity which potentially interferes with part of this, at least from the point of view of the angle of the camera. But you also have a form of ball which is different, and it is Acts from where the ball is, not where the individual is necessarily, “said Goodell. “So there is a combination of factors there, but I think technology will exist in the future. We continue a lot with our partners. This is how to move forward as quickly as possible so that we can arrive at this place.”
Virtual gain virtual technology was not transparent during the 2024 pre-season. Process of a report in the Lions-Giant exhibition showed some of the problems with the system, which had its Tennis problems In recent years too.
Although the League did not officially implement it during the regular season, the NFL continued to use it in the background of matches in the official center of the League in New York. Over time, the League has been successful.
“We went from around 75 seconds of measurement of the chain, and we were able to reduce it to around 30 seconds at the end of the season. So we shaved about 45 seconds of administration of the game just in Going from a measure of the physical chain to a virtual chain measurement. “
This offseason, the League football operations group plans to recommend the use of virtual line -to -gain technology as the main measurement system of the 2025 regular season, says Fields. Support from the competition committee is necessary for this to become official next season.
Goodell said on Monday that the League introduces new technologies, the first two considerations are precision and reliability. He would not want to implement anything as long as “you think you’re right.”
“Generally”, says Fields, “our philosophy around technology and innovation around the game is, if that does not make it more effective and makes administration better and more precise, we should not do it.”
Admittedly, virtual winning virtual technology that the league has used in the background since 2023 would have changed anything Josh Allen Be stopped short of fourth and 1 at the start of the fourth quarter of the AFC championship match.
But even if technology is advancing to a point where it can determine where the ball was at the time when progress has been arrested, there is always the question of whether the NFL would allow such critical calls to be made by computers and not by humans bearing the striped.
“I think it’s more a philosophical question for the competition committee,” said Fields when asked if there will be a time when humans do not spot the ball on the ground. “I think that one of the things they have always been very clear with us is to want the games to be officiated on the field. The clubs have been very clear about it. I therefore think they are always questions and Conversations in progress that we have each year, with regard to various subjects that occur according to what may have happened this season.
“But this is really a philosophical question for clubs or the competition committee on where they see the future of the game. But just to repeat, they have always been very clear for us that they want the game Officer on the ground, not in New York. “
In theory, an effective and reliable computerized system could help correctly spot a bullet for the Tash’s push of the Eagles. Philadelphia attempted 47 Tash pushes this season, according to CBS Sports Research, which resulted in 38 successful games. But this mass of humanity, to borrow from Goodell, can sometimes make the ball with precision next to the naked eye.
The Skeletrack system was only in five stadiums this season for several reasons. Although the system is expensive, the biggest problems have been that each stage is different. There may not be enough fiber or power to allow cameras, and not all stadiums are a football installation.
This system was set up at the Allegiant Stadium, at Stade Arrowhead, at the AT&T stadium, at the Sofi stadium and Caesar’s Superdome, with more likely to come in the 2025 season.
“And therefore the power of Sony Hawk-Eye technology comes up to life when you can install in all stages, calibrate all the data and then be able to use the ideas that come out,” said Fields.
Channel gangs will probably never disappear. Players, coaches and fans all need the visual of the general gain line, and the NFL still needs a backup plan in case the technology fails. But all the signs indicate that the virtual measure is the main thing means that this coming season.
Over the next few years, officials will continue to spot the ball while technology is trying to make up for what humans can do. And that’s when the League will have a decision to make.