Technology and the NFL

Excerpt from Peter King's MMQB on SI: Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III*star; Chad Johnson tempted fate - Peter King - SI.com

Welcome to modern life, NFL.

"The day of the dumb football player is over,'' says Jim Schwartz, and he's about to show me why. In his office Friday, a few hours before the preseason opener, Schwartz listed the reasons the Lions -- and they're hardly alone; many teams in the league have gone to the iPad for gameplans and playbooks -- have gone to tablet form instead of the tree-killing paper way of life.


But this says it all: It used to be that when the Lions would have a correction to make in a game plan, they'd fix the page or pages, print them out fresh for every one of the players on the roster and for all the coaches ... and the secretaries would have to go through every game plan, remove the bad page for the good one, then put it all back together again, in each individual player's or coach's binder. Now coaches can make corrections up to the last minute before a team meeting and send the corrections to the iPads of every player and coach, and the fix would be made. When those late corrections would have to be made, the joke around the office was, "Well, gotta go kill another tree.'' And each week, the secretaries would spend significant time shredding all the old game plans every week.


What's amazing, and the part I didn't know, is the security of it. We've all heard stories about players who lost playbooks and got fined. Now there's a double edge of security for the iPads, if one is lost. First, each unit is password-protected, Second, Schwartz or the program administrator at the Lions can erase anything the club wants to scrub remotely. So, every Monday night this year, after the Lions have reviewed the tape from Sunday's game, the game plan for that week's game will be erased from everyone's iPad. By late Tuesday night or early Wednesday, the new game plan will be sent to every tablet, and another week begins.


To prevent any funny business by the players or coaches, the tablets are not set up to print, copy or email anything on the iPad. "It's a lot more secure, a lot more green, and a lot more portable,'' Schwartz said. "I'd like to say we're doing it because of conservation, but the truth is it's more about the ease of operation than anything else.''


The Lions are in the home stretch of building in video on the tablets -- it should be in place for the start of the regular season. When that happens, players will be able to look at a play in that week's game plan and see the complete history of it. They'll have the ability to look at video of every time they'd run a particular pass play that season, for instance.
"It's funny,'' Schwartz said. "In a couple of years, we'll all laugh at how we did it the first year with the iPad, because it's bound to get more advanced. But right now, it's pretty cool.''

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In the next few years that stuff really will revolutionize game-planning. Teams being able to pull and review specific video has already been a huge help, but soon players will be able to connect to those elements from these tablet devices and study exactly how an opponent plays out of certain formations. It's going to be really interesting to see how having more direct access to the gameplans and to film will affect the quality of play on the field, and understandably it will help the dedicated players much more.

It also makes me think about the fan experience in relation to the stadiums putting in Wi-Fi, etc. Outside companies don't have access to the same kind of film and such that NFL teams do, but it still seems possible to provide packages that provide some of that information to fans. So you could be awaiting a key third down and pull up what the Falcons do with a balanced two TE set with Michael Turner in the backfield and Tony Gonzalez as the strong TE. I don't know if enough fans would care to make use of that info the way that teams will, however. Stuff like Edge NFL Matchup is already marginalized because not enough of the football-starved public likes to see breakdowns and analysis like that. Still interesting to think about, though. The teams will certainly be preparing differently in five years, and I wonder how watching the games will change as well.

 

good stuff

 

Make it a booth review do things will speed up

 

until they can reliably and securely use it as a sideline tool, they haven't fully grasped what it can do.

I like the thoughts about down and distance tendencies, and etc, but they use all of that when determining what plays go on the sushi menu, and when they're used.

 

Excellent. Timely, informative and devoid of opnion, supposition, condescension, or presumptuousness. Reporting suits you much better than commentary.

 

Go away. No one wants you here.

 

No.

Youve been told multiple times by the people that actually run this board that it isnt up to you tell people to leave. The reason being you dont run the board. Now kindly shut the fuck up.

Good day, sir.

 

I can't make you leave, I'm just pointing out the truth that people don't want you here because you constantly shit up threads and add absolutely nothing. By all means, find one person who says they want you to post here.

 

Yes! Another message board fight!

 

No, youre being obnoxious and trying to run this board. Your opinions are the only ones you see as important. You got this way right before you left last time after it was made clear to you that this is not your board. Clearly, you have a problem. Its funny how it survived without you. Do you add to the entertainment? Sure. I just wonder, if youre all that, why dont you have your own board? Because you suck thats why. Now go fuck yourself.