Instead of relying on the human eye, the NFL will use a digital system for measurements.
The NFL has finally decided to replace the “eye test” of somebody 25 yards away spotting the ball with a digital system. The league announced that starting in the 2025 season, it will use a digital measurement system to conduct chain measurements instead of bringing chains to the field.
This will not only make spotting the ball more accurate and reliable, but it will also save a couple of minutes in a game that would otherwise have required the people spotting the chains to run out onto the field for measurement.
If you’ve ever stepped onto a football field in the past 40 years, they are historically irregular and have inconsistencies, whether it’s the playing surface, poorly marked yard lines, etc. Because of that, officials needed to use measurements because the field did not allow them to square the line with any degree of accuracy.
Within the past decade, the rise of turf fields, single-use fields, separate practice fields, and automatic field painting systems have all but eliminated these issues from yesteryear at every level down to high school.
We’ve relied on the “short wing” referees — the head linesman and line judge — to spot the ball for as long as I’ve been alive. The short wing is supposed to know if they spotted the ball short of the line to gain. They have the best views on the field of the individualized yard markers right inside the field of play. At the highest levels of the game, these measurements serve as an extra timeout or for a coach to buy time or grasp at straws.
Most refs will tell you they believe that every game should have precisely one measurement and successfully manage to find a situation in each game to justify measuring. The NFL thinks they have found a way.
Will there be a tangible change? Hypothetically speaking, sure. But faster reviews could also lead to more measurements. Then again, since it’s digital, head coaches may be in the mindset that these measurements are more accurate since they don’t involve the human eye.
The biggest takeaway is that the NFL is integrating technology, which will likely contribute to more and more of these being incorporated into the game and developed and deployed in the near future.