Why AI could replace NFL first-down markers sooner than you might think

AI and new technology could soon make the chain gang obsolete, with an advanced system known as “Hawk-Eye” aspiring to make the game faster and more accurate.

For more than 100 years, football has been officiated using a simple chain 10 yards long. The so-called chain gang has been the sport’s judge and jury, ruling whether a ball traveled the number of yards needed for a team to get a first down — and four more chances to score.

But artificial intelligence and new technology could soon make the chain gang obsolete, with an advanced system known as Hawk-Eye aspiring to make the game faster and more accurate by mashing together high-tech software with a lot of cameras.

In the 2024-25 preseason, the NFL tested Sony’s Hawk-Eye to make calls on “line to gain,” the officiating term for measuring the 10 yards a team needs to advance the ball to get a first down.

Hawk-Eye uses up to 60 cameras, including those used for broadcasts, to piece together every possible angle on a given football play. That’s useful for referees who use it to scrub through the action frame by frame when they’re making play calls, but Sony and the NFL are now taking it one step further.

Using feeds from six cameras with 8K resolution (four times as many pixels as a 4K camera), Hawk-Eye can now pinpoint the ball’s start and finish using artificial intelligence and determine whether it traveled the necessary 10 yards. Every NFL stadium is equipped to use Hawk-Eye for line to gain.

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/nfl/ai-replace-nfl-first-markers-sooner-might-think-rcna188186

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