football111NFL game-balls will become “smart” this season.

The Toronto Sun reported that the NFL will insert chips inside of footballs this preseason and potentially during Thursday Night Football games.

The initial purpose of the technology implementation is to measure the accuracy of field goal kicks, which will help the NFL determine if it should narrow goalposts and increase the difficulty of field goals and extra points.

ESPN reported that NFL kickers made 84.5 percent of field-goal attempts last season, which was the second-highest rate in history. ESPN also noted that the chip-equipped footballs could provide applications beyond just kicking — for example, it could help referees better determine where to place the ball after a play, or whether a player crossed the goal line.

While the NFL is typically slow to adopt new technology, this is the latest example of the league trying to stay innovative. Players began wearing RFID chips in their jerseys two years ago, and as a result, teams and fans have access to “Next Gen Stats.” The Microsoft Surface tablet also arrived on the sidelines during games two years ago, giving players and coaches a more efficient alternative to review past plays than the traditional black-and-white paper print-outs. And now robotic dummies are making their way into NFL training camp.

You can expect to see more tests and eventual “smart ball” implementations like this throughout the professional sports world. There are already companies like Adidas and 94Fifty that sell high-tech balls to the public, and it seems like a matter of time before the big leagues implement similar technology to collect data both for themselves and fans.

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