Quote:
Originally Posted by scho63
Not sure why they can't integrate a sensor into both ends of the football and know exactly where the forward progress ends.
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It sounds like they might already have it. Putting myself in their shoes, though, I can come up with a variety of issues with it:
- It wouldn't be accurate in cases where forward progress is stopped but the pile lunges forward after the whistle is blown.
- Similarly, it wouldn't be accurate when the key question is when the runner is down.
- Just in general, it would be difficult to relay the "correct" ball placement down to the field. For example, if the system said that the ball should be at the 47.382 yard line, how does the ref place the ball at that spot? I don't want refs carrying around yard sticks out there.
Could they get around all of that? Maybe. You could sync audio/video timestamps up with the sensor data to address the first two. You could say that they aren't literally measuring the placement but are only using it when a first down (or touchdown) is in question. But all of that makes it more complicated, and the NFL tends to err on the side of keeping a little of the human element in the game, and it would be admittedly unsatisfying to have them just tell us what they computers say rather than giving fans something to debate.