First look at the NFL’s new virtual first down measurement

Don’t you love technology?

In case you missed it, in April, the NFL announced that all on-field measurements for first downs would be done virtually through Sony’s Hawk-Eye technology.

The Chain Gang will still be on the sideline holding the first down marker, but if the referee ever needs a closer look at whether the offense made the line to gain or not, he and the entire stadium will look up to the video board.

Sony’s Hawk-Eye virtual measurement system was tested all last season, and the league is confident that it will allow them to accurately and quickly measure the distance between the spotted ball and the line to gain.

Early in the second quarter of tonight’s Hall of Fame Game, in which the Los Angeles Chargers demolished the Detroit Lions, 34 to 7, the official called for the first ever virtual measurement.

From the NFL’s press release.

Hawk-Eye, which will be deployed across all 30 NFL stadiums and the international venues hosting NFL games, consists of six 8K cameras for optical tracking of the position of the ball. The system is operated from the NFL’s Art McNally GameDay Central Officiating Center (AMGC) in New York and is integrated with the league’s existing replay system.

As on-field officials are notified of the measurement outcome, virtual recreations of measurements are produced in real time for the in-stadium and broadcast audience. The full operational process takes around 30 seconds, saving up to 40 seconds from a measurement with the chains.

Sony’s collaboration with the NFL on this technology originated with the league’s adoption of Hawk-Eye’s Synchronized Multi-Angle Replay Technology (SMART) in 2021, a system used to combine video feeds from all of the NFL’s broadcast partners in one place. This allowed replay officials at the stadium and AMGC to synchronize up to four camera angles at one time during a review and select the best option.

What are your thoughts on the virtual measurement?