NFL to use RFID Chips in Footballs for Preseason, Thursday Night Games

[Mavric]

The NFL is finalizing plans to insert custom-made data chips into the game balls used in the 2016 preseason and Thursday night regular-season games, a league source said Sunday night.


The data would be used for research that could spark significant changes in officiating, kicking and other areas as soon as the 2017 season.

The Toronto Sun reported earlier Sunday that the league would use chips in K-balls to help determine the potential impact of narrowing the goalposts sometime in the future.

The data will tell the league how close each kick comes to the uprights and thus help project how many additional kicks would be missed if the uprights were closer together.

ESPN

 

[huKSer]

De-chip gate is coming up?

 

[NUance]

They should have done this years ago. I mean, the technology has been around for well over a decade now.

:

 

[Kiyoat Husker]

They should have done this years ago. I mean, the technology has been around for well over a decade now.

:

definitely! And of all the ways they could be using this technology, they choose kicking? How about determining first downs, touchdowns, where the ball is at the bottom of a pile, etc.

 

[NUance]

They should have done this years ago. I mean, the technology has been around for well over a decade now.

:

definitely! And of all the ways they could be using this technology, they choose kicking? How about determining first downs, touchdowns, where the ball is at the bottom of a pile, etc.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. And I'll bet that's next.

 

[Mavric]

They should have done this years ago. I mean, the technology has been around for well over a decade now.

:

definitely! And of all the ways they could be using this technology, they choose kicking? How about determining first downs, touchdowns, where the ball is at the bottom of a pile, etc.

Farther down in the article it says that's what they're working toward. Mentions that earlier tests were unreliable when the ball is at the bottom of the pile. Which doesn't seem exactly related because there is usually only a pile after the runner is down (unless there's a fumble) but anyway....