Are you noticing something different on the football field this NFL season? On the surface, it all seems like the same hard-hitting action and incredible athletic plays weve gotten used to over the years. That part hasnt changed, at least. But a revolution is taking place under the surface, one which you cannot see from the stands or the comfort of your living room couch but could be more impactful than anything the NFL has seen in a long time. The Internet of Things (IoT) has officially come to the NFL, and it looks like it will benefit players, fans, and teams alike.
When speaking of change happening beneath the surface, that description is literal. Beneath the jerseys of NFL players, special RFID tracking tags have been placed in each athletes shoulder pads. This is a result of a recent partnership deal the NFL struck with Zebra Technologies, a tech company that has specialized in tracking devices for decades. The RFID tags used are a result of the advancement of the Internet of Things, where sensors embedded within items can communicate with each other and collect and send data on users.
The tags embedded within the shoulder pads of the players are able to collect a staggering amount of information. The data gathered includes the field position of the player, his speed, acceleration, how far he has traveled, and more. And the true specs of whats going on show just how impressive this technology is. Data is sent up to 85 times every second, with latency of only 120 milliseconds. Needless to say, teams have plenty of data to work with.
This technology is only just hitting the whole NFL after getting a test run of sorts in the previous football season. A quick snapshot shows how prevalent it was during 2014. More than 2,000 players were outfitted with the special RFID sensors, while 18 of the 31 NFL stadiums in the league featured receivers that could collect data from these sensors. Nearly 1.7 billion on-field coordinates were collected, for a total of more than 68 billion bytes of player position data. From these figures, its clear that the NFL is serious about data collection and using the IoT to get as much information about what is happening on the field as possible.
But many people will likely ask, what can be gained from using IoT sensors to collect so much data from every game? The truth is, the possibilities are nearly endless. First of all, teams and coaches can get a more accurate picture of how athletes are performing on the field. This gives new insights into how to strategize, how effective those strategies are, and who might be playing an impactful role without necessarily showing up in the stat sheet. Second, athletes can also get a clear picture of where they might need to improve. Most serious players like to know how to get better and in what areas they need to work harder. If data can show that in clear terms, players will be able to pick up their individual performance game by game.
Fans also stand to benefit from this arrangement. With the exploding popularity of fantasy football leagues, fans love getting more information about their favorite players. Using IoT sensors to send this data directly to fans mobile devices would be a great way to improve the overall experience. Plus, many fans simply want to know more about what their teams players are doing, such as how far the starting running back has run since the beginning of the game.
Even when naming these possible benefits, thats just scratching the surface of everything the IoT is capable of giving the NFL. Another potential use is to prevent player injury by tracking player movements over the course of a game or even practice. Considering how rough football can be and the high rate of injury, preventing injuries from ever taking place can not only increase player safety but improve the on-field product.
The Internet of Things has the potential to affect the NFL is various interesting ways. While the differences may not be immediately obvious when watching the game, the improvements will play a large role well into the future. As more advances are made in the cloud, sensor technology, and hyperconvergence, these improvements will become more widespread not just in the NFL but in other sports leagues as well.
