Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
NEW YORK CITY — The National Football League is taking a big step this year that may change the way people watch football forever. For select games this upcoming season, the NFL will use radio-frequency identification tracking chips — also referred to as RFID chips — to generate exact positioning data for each player.
The quarter-sized RFID chips will be placed in each shoulder pad and will provide a whole new aspect of player statistics. The data received from the chips will be broadcast immediately so football fans can know information on players’ position, velocity, direction and force of impact for every play.
Once the RFID chip is used in every NFL game, it will change football for fans, players, coaches and team executives. Fans who obsess over statistics will be able to take their obsession to a new level. They will instantly know how far their favorite player ran on the play and how fast or how hard a hit was.
When a mistake is made on the field, coaches will be able to know who messed up the play or missed his blocking assignment, for example. Team executives will have a new tool with RFID chips when building their teams, as they can compare players’ stats more in-depth than ever before.
The MLB and the NBA have recently made technological advances with various instant replay changes, and it looks like the NFL is finally catching up. League spokesman Brian McCarthy said, “This goes back to something NFL Commissioner (Roger) Goodell has stressed during his tenure here, which is to embrace technology, use it to make the technology better for the players, the coaches and at home for the fans.”
The RFID chips will be used in 17 of the 31 NFL stadiums. Every team in the NFL will be involved in using the tracking chips at least once throughout the 2014 season, mostly on Thursday night games. The NFL hopes to use the tracking chips in every game in the future.
Lindsey Peterson is a Brigham Young University student studying broadcast journalism. Contact her at lindspeterson4@gmail.com or on Twitter @LindsPetey.
