For decades, the NFL has used a couple of orange poles connected by a 10-yard-long chain to measure the line to gain for first downs. That is changing in 2025.
NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Tuesday that the league is adopting Sony's Hawk-Eye Innovations technology to measure the line to gain in games starting this year.
The new system, which was tested in both preseason and regular season games last year, uses six 8K cameras around the stadium to track the ball. According to Sony president and COO Neal Manowitz, "the system is accurate down to less than half an inch."
How Hawk-Eye will work in the NFL
When a ball is spotted by the referee, the new technology notifies the officials whether the previous play resulted in a first down. The entire process of reviewing a spot takes about 30 seconds.
Hawk-Eye's implementation has the potential to save minutes of time during a game, as it removes the necessity of walking the chain out onto the field to confirm whether the ball crossed the line to gain.
All 30 NFL stadiums – as well as those international stadiums selected to host NFL games – will have the necessary cameras installed ahead of the 2025 season.
Chain crews will still remain on the sidelines in a secondary role in 2025.
Hawk-Eye's proven capabilities in other sports
Hawk-Eye technology has already been implemented in a variety of other sports and has achieved great success.
FIFA has authorized it as one of the soccer federation's official goal-line technology systems, and it is the sport's most widely used goal-line technology system. The English Premier League, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A, among others, all use Hawk-Eye in VAR (virtual assistant referee) reviews to determine goals, offside calls, penalties and more.
The technology has also been used in elite-level tennis tournaments since 2006. The Australian Open and U.S. Open have already replaced human line judges entirely with Hawk-Eye, and Wimbledon is doing the same starting later this year.
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