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The 7 Most Important Tech Storylines From The 2017 NFL Season

Here are the top seven technology areas that impacted the NFL this season:

1. Football tracking

In the fourth year of its five-year deal with the NFL, Zebra Technologies was able to place in tracking chips in all game balls. That enables the gathering of data including the velocity and rotation rate of the football.

An elite quarterback would register 700 rpm with the football coming out of his hand, Zebra vice president of sports business development John Pollard told reporters last week.

Pollard said the league was evaluating and studying the data coming from footballs and that fans could soon have access to it.

“I would expect us to see a decent set of more information available this coming season,” Pollard said. “We’d hope — the decision lies with the NFL — that the ball data itself will be published. When we published ball data from the Senior Bowl this past week, there was tremendous interest both from the evaluators’ perspective and also fans and media alike.”

 

2. Helmet technology

The VICIS Zero1 helmet made its NFL debut after receiving the top rank in testing. Numerous players took to using the helmet with an innovative design that enables it to reduce impact forces by deforming upon impact and then returning to shape.

NFL players not only used the helmet, but also Seattle Seahawks teammates Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin were among those who invested in it.

“I went over to this, and I’ve taken some of the same hits. I’ve hit the ground harder. I’ve been hit in the head a lot harder. And the way this helmet absorbs it is fantastic,” Detroit Lions receiver Golden Tate told Tiki and Tierney last week. “So I’m like getting hit and I’m like, ‘Crap, I just got hit hard,’ but I feel OK.

“Obviously with CTE and head injuries, we’re trying to protect our heads because when it’s all said and done — our athleticism goes away, our sight, our backs — but our minds we want to keep.”

NFL players are also wearing the Riddell Precision-Fit helmets that are custom made after they go through 3D scans of their heads.

3. Amazon streams Thursday Night Football

Amazon paid the NFL handsomely for the digital rights to stream 11 Thursday Night Football games one season after Twitter got to do so.

There was a paywall, as Prime Video membership was needed to access the streams. But Amazon finished the season noting that it beat Twitter when it came to average-minute audience for at least 30 seconds with more than 310,000 viewers.

Amazon did things a little differently, with game broadcasts available in different languages and offering product tie-ins to boost merchandise sales. Late in the season, Amazon-owned Twitch was also streaming Thursday Night Football.

Amazon is believed to have submitted a bid for next year’s Thursday Night Football package as has Twitter, according to Sports Business Journal.

4. Mobile streaming

With Verizon no longer the exclusive carrier to provide the mobile phone streaming of NFL games in the U.S., the door was open to networks to provide the streaming to fans.

ESPN subscribers during the playoffs could begin accessing games and highlights on their phones, and the deal will include upcoming Monday Night Football games.

NBC is providing mobile streaming of Sunday Night Football games beginning next season, and FOX Sports announced last week after winning the broadcast rights to Thursday Night Football that it would be able to distribute TNF and Sunday games to subscribers on mobile phones for the first time.

Verizon’s deal also brought the streaming of the playoffs and Super Bowl to Yahoo Sports.

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5. League-wide esports

The first Madden NFL Club Championship concluded with the champion competitive Madden player representing the Washington Redskins to take home $35,000 and receive Super Bowl LII tickets.

This was the first year in which the NFL held a season-long competition that included every team, as casual gamers were encouraged to rep their favorite teams for the chance to show off their skills and win prizes. The final round was broadcast on ESPN’s family of networks, marking the start of a multi-year agreement to have competitive Madden broadcasts.

An NFL owner in the Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones also made a personal investment in esports by helping purchase compLexity Gaming.

6. Stadiums

Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta opened its doors to Falcons fans, engaging them with a gigantic video board that was a sight to see and much, much more.

Inside the eight more NFL stadiums this season, Intel installed 38 5K ultrahigh-definition cameras each so that fans would have access to 360-degree highlights.

And outside of Levi’s Stadium and MetLife Stadium, San Francisco 49ers and New York Jets fans were able to use biometric scanning to expedite their way into venues thanks to team partnerships with IdentoGO by IDEMIA.

7. Facebook

Not only did the NFL partner with Facebook to bring NFL Films content to the Facebook Watch platform, but also players were very receptive in being the subjects of episodic shows on Watch.

The most prominent of them — Tom vs Time — featured Patriots quarterback Tom Brady chasing another championship at age 40, with episodes running as the team advanced all the way to the Super Bowl. The shows drew headlines, provided behind-the-scenes access for fans into Brady’s life and unique training methods, and even led to controversy as well.

“I was very surprised when he was doing this thing,” Patriots receiver Julian Edelman said at a Facebook event last week, according to the Boston Globe. “I can remember vividly in 2009, when I was a rookie. I’m a millennial and I was over there on Facebook, and every time [Brady] would walk by, he’d be, like, ‘Get off your phone! Get in your playbook!’”

Other players to be featured on Facebook Watch this season include Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch thanks to a partnership with Bleacher Report and also Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller. Both got opportunities to show fans their comedic personalties.

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