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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Three things will matter in the NFL next season: location, location, location.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last year, the league partnered with Zebra Technologies to install its radio-frequency identification (RFID) system, called MotionWorks, in 18 stadiums, and in 2015 that tracking system will be rolled out to the remaining sites, including Wembley in London. Over the last decade, RFID has become an integral part of any major company\u2019s supply chain logistics and inventory tracking systems. Now it's set to help teams run their football logistics and track their inventories across the playing field.\r\n\r\n\r\n\t&lt;strong&gt;MORE EDGE: Behind the NFL's yellow first down line, and what's next&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though a major motivator for using Zebra\u2019s technology is to improve the TV experience for fans, three teams in particular\u2014the 49ers, Lions, and Saints\u2014have embraced using it not just during games, but in practice, too. \u201COur first-year goal was a way to monitor each player during the course of the work week,\u201D says Sean Payton, head coach of the Saints. By keeping an eye on distances and speeds run in practice, the Saints modified training to try and reduce soft-tissue injuries.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Payton, players were immediately interested in their personal statistics. \u201CThe lineman started walking in circles,\u201D he says. \"What are you doing?\" Payton asked them. \"Well we\u2019ve got to get our numbers up,\" they replied.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[daily_cut.NFL]If you\u2019ve been into any major store in the last decade or so, you\u2019ve probably noticed the strange little stickers with flat square spirals of wire on boxes of electronics or CD cases. You\u2019ve almost certainly walked past the metal hoops guarding the inside of store entrances, and maybe even set off the occasional alarm when the RFID chip on something you just bought hadn\u2019t been properly disarmed.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The technology in the NFL uses essentially the same idea, except that while most RFID tags in stores are passive and need to pass through a sensor to be detected, the bottle-cap sized chips inserted into the shoulder pads of NFL players actively send out their own radio signals. This information is then picked up by a series of 20 receivers placed high up in the stadium, and the location of each player can then be worked out through triangulation. Additionally, each of Zebra\u2019s RFID chips is Bluetooth-compatible, and could be used to re-transmit information from any biometric sensors.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The shoulder pad location was chosen both to give the best line of sight to the receivers, and because it allows MotionWorks to track direction. \u201CLeft and right gives you orientation, so we know if you\u2019re running backwards,\u201D explains Jill Stelfox, Vice President and General Manager of Location Solutions (the part of Zebra Technologies that runs MotionWorks).\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A consequence of where the tags are located is that it is also possible to see when a quarterback torques his body to throw, and thus to count the number of throws made. For 36-year-old quarterback Drew Brees, says Payton, \u201Cwe do have to have a pitch count. We do have to pay attention to his number of throws.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\u200BThough only 18 stadiums were equipped with the tracking system this year, every single player on every single team had the tags installed in his pads before the first regular season game. He carried them around deactivated until he walked out through the locker room door to the field at one of the active stadiums, when a device placed above the doorframe would wirelessly switch the tags on, and the player would pop up on the screens of MotionWorks\u2019 headquarters in San Jose, Calif.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Zebra first began to explore opportunities in sports with the Shanghai women\u2019s soccer team in 2011 and then the University of Washington football team in 2013. That same season, the NFL ran a test of several different tracking systems, and picked MotionWorks for 2014. Used to tracking millions and millions of RFID tags on automotive production lines around the world every single day, handling a few thousand NFL players is almost a step down for Zebra. \u201CPeople talk about the NFL being a scale problem,\u201D Stelfox says. \u201CFor us, it\u2019s easy.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As well as tracking the players, \u201Cwe track the chains\u2014the down and distance markers\u2014we track the referees, and in the Pro Bowl we actually tracked the ball,\u201D Stelfox says. Keeping an eye on the ball is the most challenging part, though. Not only do tags need to be seamlessly integrated under the skin of the football, but there is also the potential that players\u2019 bodies could block or interfere with the signal. Stelfox and her team didn\u2019t encounter that problem during the Pro Bowl test, though.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, MotionWorks was able to track the location of the ball to an accuracy of less than six inches. With further development to fine tune the technology, this raises the possibility that Zebra\u2019s system could even one day be used for in-game decisions. \u201CThis red hankie with sand in it still sits in my pocket,\u201D Payton complains of the existing system in which he can challenge a call by throwing a red flag onto the field. \u201CWe\u2019ve got to figure out a better way to do this.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The key question right now, though, is how much access teams will have to the data collected by the NFL. Detailed information on other teams\u2019 plays during the season might revolutionize both coaching and play calling. \u201COne of the challenges in football is it\u2019s hard to get the quarterback enough playing time,\u201D Payton explains. In the future, he predicts, rookie quarterbacks might train the same way pilots do, with virtual snaps in simulators.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/edge/2015/03/05/nfl-player-tracking-technology-new-orleans-saints>