If it is the same as being at home, then why go to the game? Save money proffit. Just trying to use logic to out scheme the NFL money machine.

I'm all for eliminating the "human element" (aka errors), but I also value a wide receiver that knows where the first down marker is. Why not implement it on a trial basis during the preseason and see the response?

I'm more interested in the NFL setting regulations that would ensure each game is filmed with the exact same number of cameras and angles. Or syncing replay footage and giving the officials a side by side view of two different angles.

Then again, they don't seem interested in making sure fields are safe to play on, so I don't know what I should expect.

Yeah. I was totally blown away by the idea of more commercials. So exciting.

That would only work on the goal line. It would not work anywhere else. No way of "the chip" knowing when forward progress was stopped.

Love the idea....wasting time to measure with a chain is so archaic

Well if they're going to do this then they also need the plane of the goal lines extended upward from the field as well so we can know if the ball breaks the plane. The first down laser could be made eye-safe if the divergence was large enough or if face shields filtered the 532 um green wavelength (guessing it would be green due to relatively cheap cost and small size of frequency-doubled Neodymium YAG lasers) but I can't see how it could be projected across the field with 28 sets of feet getting in the way.

IMO this is overdoing it.

There are certain things about watching a live game that you don't want to change.

I think that they say that not in an effort to appeal to you and me, but to the people who would actually be buying the product (league owners, etc).

if it is an actual laser that appears on the field this would also help instant replay. Being a sort of tangible string that traverses the entire field would be a much better reference point than trying to judge the angles of the camera relative to the ball and the markers.

pre-season may be a bit too early to use it, but how about the pro bowl? no one gives a crap about that.

Yes there is. It could work anywhere on the field.

WTF. Brainy Iggles fan?



Oh and BTW, robots bitches, robots. Or bionics.

If the officials could actually see the line on the field at the time, I wonder if it would subconsciously affect their ball placement when it was close?

Put a sensor in both tips of the ball, assuming each ball is the same shape, we could define the entire outer surface of the ball. Then you could have the furthest downfield point of the ball at any time. Sync it with the video, during replays the ref could freeze it at the moment a player was down/out of bounds, and you would have the exact position of the ball.

I also like the fact that, right now, it takes a pretty savvy and alert player to know right where the sticks are at the center of the field and make the dive to reach the first down.

With this, there's just a bright ass green line that even a half-with like Snoop Minnis would be able to pick up.

I hate everything added to the game that detracts from any skill. It's why I don't like automated strike zones in baseball (pitching to an umpires zone is a skill). Knowing exactly where the sticks are and when/how you'll need to reach them without a bright green line running through the center of the field is a skill and I don't want to see that marginalized.

I don't see how it possibly couldn't.

Yeah, I think this would definitely hurt the game.