The NFL goes high-tech to measure for first downs : NPR

WASHINGTON — Starting this fall, the NFL will retire the use of chain crews to measure for first downs in favor of camera-based technology that can determine the distance automatically, the league announced Tuesday.

Human referees will still be responsible for the placement of the football after every play. But when it is too close to call whether the ball has crossed the line to gain a first down, officials will use cameras to automatically determine that, rather than measure it with the traditional 10-yard chain.

The new system will rely on a set of six cameras placed around each of the NFL’s 30 stadiums. The technology is operated by Hawk-Eye, the sports review tech company owned by Sony. Hawk-Eye has provided in-game replay assistance to NFL officials since 2021, and the new measurement system was tested “extensively” in 2024, the league said.

A virtual recreation of the measurement will be shown on TV broadcasts and on video scoreboards inside the stadiums. The process will save around 40 seconds per measurement compared to the traditional manual chain measurement, the NFL said.

Calls for technology assistance in placing the football grew louder after January’s AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills, in which referees ruled Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen short on a late-game 4th down quarterback sneak that some Bills coaches and players later said they believed had been good for a first down. Replay reviews conducted during the game were not conclusive enough to overturn the referees’ original call, officials said, because camera views of the ball were partially or entirely obstructed by players’ bodies.

The new system would not have altered that outcome, as referees will still have to use their own judgment to place the ball before the Hawk-Eye cameras can measure whether it reached a first down.

A technological system that can reliably and accurately place the ball does not yet exist, officials say. At a press conference in February, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said developing such a technology was “complicated.”

“Obviously, you have a lot of humanity that interferes, potentially, with some of that, at least from a camera angle standpoint,” he said then. “You also have the shape of the ball that is different, and it’s about where the ball is, not where the individual is.”

The league is actively working toward implementing such a technology, he said then, though any possible solution would have to be tested for accuracy and reliability in pre-season games or other leagues before implementation in the NFL.

Hawk-Eye also provides automated reviews in other sports, including out-of-bound calls in tennis and offside in soccer. During spring training this year, Major League Baseball rolled out an automated ball-strike challenge system using Hawk-Eye camera technology.