Actually I just heard recently that the NFL was bringing in technology for next season in the placement of the ball.
Meaning there will be AI technology to know when the player carrying the ball crosses 10 yards from the previous spot to obtain a First Down. Also, it will be used for BALL placement.
This resulted primarily from blown calls in the AFC Championship game when Buffalo Bills QB made a First Down and the Refs could not see it. OR the fix was in for the Chiefs to win, as many people claim(wink, wink, nod, nod).
The NFL has to do this IMHO with the amount of money being bet on all these games. IF people perceive that these games are FIXED to benefit one team over the other then people will stop betting. It is all about the money.
If they just went by the ground, this wouldn’t be debatable. None of this crap ‘plane of the endzone’ or how far did he lean forward then get pushed back’ stuff.
Touchdown is literally that. Touching the ground of the end zone. Foot, knee, ball, whatever. Downs are down. Where did what part touch the ground first. All of which is objective and easy to replay.
“...technology for next season...”
You bring a few situations to the problems in using human officials for anything. In my forty years of officiating different sports to include football, I have found the same thing the priest said in Rudy, “Son, in thirty-five years of religious studies, I’ve come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts; there is a God, and, I’m not him.”
“Officiating sports falls in line. And as long as it effects the bottom line, it is an issue to have something thrown at it.
A perfect example is the rule change recently to rule 11 article one that says A touchdown is scored when:
1. The ball is on, above, or behind the plane (extended) and is possession of a runner who has advanced from the field of play into the end zone.
What that means is that a runner can cross the goal line and even if the ball didn’t, it’s considered a touchdown by association. The ball doesn’t have to break the plane if the line of end zone goes into an out of play area (extended).
Another is taunting. Rule 12, Section 3, Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Article 1: Prohibited Acts:
There shall be no unsportsmanlike conduct. This applies to any act which is contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship. Such acts specifically include, among others:
(c) Using baiting or taunting acts or words that engender ill will between teams
I can promise you that intimidation is a major part of the game and taunting is the main tool in it all the way down to youth teams. So it could be called on any play, but isn’t because if they take the thug out of the game it becomes lawn tennis and the frothing fans won’t pay for that.
AI technology is not going to be able to cover situations like that without wiring the players and/or destroying the game that has been created for a certain fan base.
It seems like every year some new idea to “improve” the game becomes a deteriment to it and takes one of two years to determine its failure. If you heard right, it will be a laugh a minute when AI can’t determine where the ball is when a player got knocked backward and tried to go forward when the forward position of the ball when the play is blown dead is beyond where it ended up. And if this is the only function of the AI, the fans will have to pay for it’s installation. That makes it fun for the entie family.
wy69
“...technology for next season...”
You bring a few situations to the problems in using human officials for anything. In my forty years of officiating different sports to include football, I have found the same thing the priest said in Rudy, “Son, in thirty-five years of religious studies, I’ve come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts; there is a God, and, I’m not him.”
“Officiating sports falls in line. And as long as it effects the bottom line, it is an issue to have something thrown at it.
A perfect example is the rule change recently to rule 11 article one that says A touchdown is scored when:
1. The ball is on, above, or behind the plane (extended) and is possession of a runner who has advanced from the field of play into the end zone.
What that means is that a runner can cross the goal line and even if the ball didn’t, it’s considered a touchdown by association. The ball doesn’t have to break the plane if the line of end zone goes into an out of play area (extended).
Another is taunting. Rule 12, Section 3, Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Article 1: Prohibited Acts:
There shall be no unsportsmanlike conduct. This applies to any act which is contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship. Such acts specifically include, among others:
(c) Using baiting or taunting acts or words that engender ill will between teams
I can promise you that intimidation is a major part of the game and taunting is the main tool in it all the way down to youth teams. So it could be called on any play, but isn’t because if they take the thug out of the game it becomes lawn tennis and the frothing fans won’t pay for that.
AI technology is not going to be able to cover situations like that without wiring the players and/or destroying the game that has been created for a certain fan base.
It seems like every year some new idea to “improve” the game becomes a deteriment to it and takes one of two years to determine its failure. If you heard right, it will be a laugh a minute when AI can’t determine where the ball is when a player got knocked backward and tried to go forward when the forward position of the ball when the play is blown dead is beyond where it ended up. And if this is the only function of the AI, the fans will have to pay for it’s installation. That makes it fun for the entie family.
wy69