GPS Trackers Revolutionize Football?

By Greg Bartlett / guest author

Everyone who watches football knows what it is like to have one bad call ruin the entire game. Unfortunately, the National Football League seems to be doing all that they can already. Even with instant replays and video footage from every angle, football officials can’t always make good calls. So is that just something that teams will have to live with?

What about GPS trackers? Real time GPS tracking units have been used on a wide variety of things and have proven themselves to be very accurate. They are already being used in races, whether for bicycles or sailboats. Would they work just as well for other sports?

Let’s think about the changes that GPS trackers in football could make. If a real time tracking unit was implanted in the game ball, the ball’s movements could be tracked precisely. Speed, direction, and the exact location of the ball would all be noted for every second of the game. Officials would be able to clearly tell which player recovered the fumble in spite of the pile of bodies on top. Telecasters would be able to give more details about the game than ever possible. Spotting the ball on the line would be a cinch. Coaches could use the information to compile better statistics and a more accurate view of their team’s performance that day.

In fact, GPS trackers may be introduced to football in the next season of the Australian Football League. This idea is not all that new for Australian football players. They’ve been wearing trackers called accelerometers for years to make sure they are performing at their highest potential. Testing a GPS tracking football just seems to be the next step.

Some football purists may not favor the idea of adding GPS tracking to football. In their minds it could easily take over the sport. Officials, announcers, coaches, and fans would all have access to an abundance of new information about the game, and possibly about each individual player. If all of the football players were tracked in addition to the ball, teams would be able to analyze how often a team used a particular defensive strategy, how far and fast a quarterback tended to throw the ball, and which players were most likely to have a false start. But these are just a few of the things that could be tracked.

Adding a GPS tracker to football would certainly revolutionize the game. But it will be up to the players and fans to see if this new technology will be widely used.

Greg Batlett is a guest author who specializes in writing about GPS technology and has earned two master’s degrees.

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