NFL to Follow the Other Football: Microchips in Game Balls?
posted Sunday Aug 8, 2010 by Nicholas DiMeo
It appears that the NFL and Roger Goodell are finally fed up with bad calls, mundane replay challenges and awful decision making. This week, the NFL has decided to humor the idea of the actual sport of football and possibly decide on inserting microchips into the game balls to determine things like touchdowns and first downs.
Cairos Technologies, a German outfit that's been trying to sell its goal line technology to football bigwigs for a while, has told Reuters that it's in discussions with the NFL about bringing its magnetic field-based technology to the land of the vikings (and, by proxy, the Minnesota Vikings).
We have a video on the technology being used in a FIFA-sanctioned tournament after the break.
The system will be able to track a ball's movement using magnets which will send a signal to a watch worn by the referees to determine if the ball meets whatever criteria it is trying to decide. Looks to be working well for FIFA. Let's see if Goodell and Co. decide to jump on-board and eliminate long boring delays for stupid challenges and silly "looks about right" first down measurements.