The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs faced off on Sunday Night in the AFC Championship. It was the Bills’ fourth shot at taking down quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs as they looked to finally get over the hump.
Ultimately, Kansas City toppled the Bills once again in a 32-29 victory. One major turning point in the game came on a controversial 4th down attempt where Bills quarterback Josh Allen was ruled short of the line to gain despite appearing to gain the required distance.
Now, reports have come out that the NFL has been testing technology that would’ve helped the referees make the correct determination, but elected against using it in the AFC Championship game.
Dawn Aponte, NFL chief football administrative officer, revealed in March that the NFL has been working on technology that “can supplement or replace the first-down chains and officiating decisions currently judged by the human eye,” according to Pro Football Talk.
The camera-based system can be used in a variety of situations, including “determining whether passes and laterals are forward or backward, where punts cross out of bounds along the side, and whether a quarterback is in or out of the pocket.”
“Line to gain is probably the one that we’re closest to implementing, and the way that we test it is that we have all the actual data that will then support what we’re getting from the optical tracking data that’s being brought in,” Aponte revealed.
Aponte also divulged that the shape of the football is providing some difficulty in utilizing the technology.
“We’ve got our computer vision experts working with the technology side of it. And I think in our sport, it’s been probably more difficult that and others, whether it’s tennis or soccer where the ball is round, and the [occlusion] has been a bit of a challenge for us.
“But we have definitely progressed in that area in terms of seeing it supporting the decisions that we are making.”
Still, it’s hard to believe the league couldn’t have instituted the technology in some capacity in one of the biggest games of the season.
