Who here can honestly say that they don’t like pro football? While baseball is popularly considered “America’s pastime” we all know that football reigns supreme as the most popular sport in the United States. NFL odds platforms go crazy when the season is on with fans from all corners of the land wanting to get in on the wagering action with their favorite teams. Now, with a sport as popular and important for mainstream culture as football, technological advances have had to be put into place to keep up with the passing of time and the demand from younger fan bases for a more modern approach to the game.
So as we wait for our beloved NFL action to come back later in the year let’s crack down some of the major ways in which technology has helped the league improve the sport of football.
First and Foremost, Player’s Safety Is a Must
We can all agree that football is one of the most physically dangerous sports around, right? With the passing of time the NFL has made all the efforts possible to ensure the player’s health and safety is met to the highest of standards but that still doesn’t give players a free pass to not ever sustaining potentially career ending injuries. With the help of technology, the NFL has made it possible to keep a close keen eye on basically every single play that happens in a football field to avoid catastrophic events from happening.
With the implementation of tech savvy football helmets the NFL has made it a point to try and eradicate the effects of concussions and repeated hits to the head that players endure in every game. Modern day helmets now include sensors that register data about every head and vertebral impact automatically to help in the battle for avoiding the long-term effects that hits like these can cause on a player.
Another way in which the NFL has helped players feel safer on the field is by the development of more player friendly uniforms and paddings. Items like coreshorts that allow the stabilization of muscles towards decreasing injury potential have been a big hit. Other features in uniforms nowadays include thermal cooling fabrics and the usage of stretch snapping materials to prevent players’ uniforms from being stretched out which can lead to leg and arm injuries has also been a welcome change. For sturdy running backs who rely on their core strength to tunnel through defenses these advancements in uniforms have come as a true blessing.
No More Faulty Calls to Ruin Football
In football fans’ minds that missed Dez Bryant call against the Packers in 2015 will always live on as one of the days in which football just seriously stunk. It took the league three full years in admitting fault in the call that could’ve perfectly changed that whole season. You’d think that admitting the mistake would be enough? No, never, even worse if it was three years later. Thankfully technology has stepped up and helped the league in not having any more faux pas during games.
With play-by-play replay systems, allowing each play on the field to be analyzed by experts in the stadiums and in the NFL offices in New York, the room for improvising calls is long gone. It’s not wrong to admit that there are still screw ups here and there but with coaches being able to challenge calls at their will, hopefully without losing those challenges, the game has improved for the better.
The Fans Benefit Too
With the irruption of social media platforms around the internet, interaction between fans and their favorite football teams and players has made it incredibly easier for fans to truly engage with their favorite stars. Up to date stats and information are a click or a notification away as well as the option for fans to see athletes in their day to day lives, that way finding easier ways to form relationships.
Of course one cannot mention football and technology without talking about one of the biggest video games in sports entertainment history, the Madden NFL franchise. This football centered video game is a cult classic amongst video gaming sports fans around the world with each version always coming in as one of the biggest hits of the year. Fans can now run their favorite teams as they wish in career modes and feel like they are an actual part of the organization. Thank God for football and technology pairing up, thank God for Madden.