If they did that, they’d have to add the fair catch back in, which would reduce the number of returns. Not gonna happen.
One of the more important changes isn’t being talked about much because it’s not very controversial. They are finally going to do away with the chain and use technology to spot the ball. It should eliminate any argument about spotting the ball on fourth down
It’s been done occasionally in the past, mostly by teams which had an older kicker, who was still accurate, but didn’t have as much leg strength anymore – they’d have a second kicker, with a stronger leg, for kickoffs and the occasional long field goal attempt.
For example, in 1983, the Packers had 41-year-old Jan Stenerud as their primary kicker, and a younger guy, Eddie Garcia, who only handled kickoffs.
Starting this fall, first downs will be measured by Sony’s Hawk-Eye cameras, according to Yahoo! Sports. Six 8K cameras will be used to track the ball and measure its distance. Link to MSN
All of us will be damn interested to see how this will work. How will the spot be determined when a QB sneaks into a mass of bodies? Where will the spot be when a runner goes out of bounds with the ball extended forward?
Lots of unknowns before this is implemented. I hope it works well, as I’ve often thought that the spotting of the ball is a job that’s not performed very accurately.
I saw that they were working on that, but I didn’t know it was going live this year. Thanks for the info.
Part of me will miss watching guys fuss around with chains but it’s hard to argue that new technology isn’t going to improve things. I imagine it will be a lot faster and will probably be a lot more precise.
Yeah, I think something that doesn’t require visual confirmation, like a chip transmitting its location will be needed the get that right.
I wonder if we will see a gradual move to punters handling kickoffs.
That’s actually been happening for a number of years, though I think that it’s still fairly uncommon; most teams still use their kickers.
Everyone is misinterpreting this. Spotting the ball will still be done manually by the ref. The only difference is instead of bringing out the chain gang when it’s close to the line, it will be checked by the new system.
Maybe not on the calls you cited, but I think I’ve seen refs throw a flag for intentional grounding when replay shows it’s warranted.
I assumed that’s what the change was too. Just no longer using the chains.
It’s not something that happens every play, just when it seems close to a first down.
That process should be faster now. Not a huge impact overall but definitely a sign that football is different. The chains always felt extremely old school to me.
It’s more of an emotional change I guess.
And you would be correct. That happens frequently.
The new rule, however, allows for replay to overturn a specific penalty: hitting a defenseless player, face mask, horse-collar tackle, tripping and roughing/running into the kicker. No flags can be ‘thrown’ on these plays after replay.
You are right, and I stand corrected.
Why don’t they put a chip in the ball? I would think that they could add a chip on each end of the ball and not Change the ball enough to affect passing.
What sort of crazy talk is that?
Next you’ll tell me we can have a machine judge the strike zone
Patriots send developmental QB Joe Milton plus a 7th round pick to the Cowboys for a 5th round compensatory pick.
On the positive side of this trade, the Pats turn a 7th into a 5th and they desperately need a great draft, so a higher pick helps a little. I personally don’t think he’s ever going to be a NFL-caliber QB, so getting anything is better than nothing. (The Bears only got a 6th round pick for Justin Fields last year, so from a “market” perspective, pretty good.) Also positive: Milton was not likely to ever see the field as a Patriot this year, and now will apparently back up Dak Prescott, so that’s good for him personally. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong if he gets a real shot.
On the negative side: they drafted him with a 6th round pick last year, and have to send a 7th rounder with him this year to net a compensatory 5th, which as I understand it means it comes after the “normal” 32 picks in the round. So let’s say a VERY late 5th. That doesn’t feel like great value at all.
Overall, I think it’s a minor win for the Pats. It would have been much better if they didn’t have to throw in that 7th rounder, though.
I suspect it’s a bigger challenge to have a system that can read the location of the chip with an accuracy of an inch or less.
How would a chip in the ball help anyway? You need to know where the ball was when the carrier’s knee/elbow/ass touched the ground, how does a chip in the ball indicate that?
Chips in the kneepads, elbow pads, etc. Duh. 
Snark aside, timing. Clocks plus camera. This isn’t rocket science.
But probably the owners, most of whom aren’t exactly spring chickens, probably aren’t quite ready for this step in any event.
If you have a person looking at the video to figure out when the runner was down, 99% of the time they’re able to see where the ball was too. Its not worth screwing with the balls to put a chip in them to cover the once in every 3-4 game case where they can’t.
The ‘fat part’ of the ball could conceivably break the pane of the goal line without either chip breaking the pane. The ref on the goal line would call this a TD (or it would be determined via video replay), while the proposed chip system would not.