Technology Innovation and the NFL

""There are times when I peek into that dark office, and I swear he's not even awake...You see this figure, staring at his screen, looking pretty much like a zombie -- ". This is not a parent lamenting a teenage kid or someone describing their accountant at work. This is a NFL football player commenting (positively) about his head coach, Jon Gruden. Jon is a coach who religiously gets up at 3 am and watches a lot of replays. In his 20 years of college and professional coaching, he has moved from watching those replays on videotape to those on Avid products ubiquitous in Hollywood editing rooms.

Jon is constantly looking for every slight advantage in a league which has worked  hard to bring  parity between teams. The NFL is big business with each 30 second television spot in the Super Bowl costing almost $ 2.5 m to air. The average tenure of an NFL coach is just over 4 years, and the pressure to perform is intense

For the uninitiated (and just about everyone outside US and Canada) American football looks like a bunch of big men piling on each other, talking strange language like "hut-hut" and taking a lot of commercial breaks.  In reality, it is much more like chess - but each move has to be planned and executed in seconds, not minutes or hours. Also a NFL coach has many more "pieces" - 53 specialists to pick from for each play but cannot have more than 11 at any given time on the field.

Football is therefore dependent on statistics and rapid fire analysis - individual player stats, team stats, injury stats, opposing team tendencies, weather stats. While every major sports has a similar set of statistics, the NFL  (and by extension the college and high school football programs that are the "farm" system for it) embraces technology enthusiastically in every aspect of its operations. Here are some:

Talent development:  Scouts have access to detailed databases on potential players. The NFL facilitates an elaborate annual talent drafting and trading process.

Sports medicine and equipment:  See this use of RF "pills" and PDAs to monitor player temperatures given the risk of over-heating. Or how space technology has benefited NFL players. And the latest in sports equipment.

Game Planning:  Options for each play - offensive, defensive, special teams - are likely developed using Pinnacle digital video solutions and watched by coaches and players on DVDs and laptops. Powerboards allow for interactive simulation of game situations.

Game scheduling: At the macro level there is the complex task of scheduling games and ensuring logistics and interests of TV networks (with a $ 18 billion, 8 year contract with the NFL) are coordinated. To make it even more complex, the NFL is experimenting with "flexible scheduling" to allow for the hottest teams at mid-season to be profiled on prime spots on Sunday and Monday nights.

Game execution:  Extensive use of wireless and wired communications between the coaches and the players. Plays are communicated, others challenged, even more analyzed in real time on what went well, went wrong.  Referees use technology to do instant analysis of questionable plays. Referees also  get considerable digital playback on their decisions within hours of the game ending.

Stadium technology: Newer stadiums are being built with the latest in high definition screens and sound equipment and the latest in communications

Game Broadcasts and Films: This is of course where fans see the latest in innovation in broadcast technology. From satellite broadcasts to use of telestrators and innovative visual aids like the "first and ten" yellow line . NFL Films has state-of -the-art studio and packaging technology to bring games live and keep game  memories alive. It has pioneered availability of streaming content, and high-definition and video-on-demand content for fans.

Player community: Intranets keep players and alumni connected. Distance learning allows athletes to try and learn things other than football as they travel and relocate frequently. Their agents utilize their own tools to stay in touch with them and negotiate with owners.

Fan CRM and eBusiness: To stay close to its 75m+ fans the NFL is constantly looking for CRM innovations. Each team has its own website to keep fans excited and spending money on merchandise.

The ecosystem:  Of course, around the game there is the galaxy of blogs, chat rooms and betting and fantasy sites. And the "small" business of electronic games

While other sports like soccer continue to argue about technology, the NFL and the ecosystem around it loves it - even though the game is all about dirt, sweat, muscle and the elements.  As a technologist I would like to suggest this as one small reason the NFL is the most valuable and profitable team sport in the world.

Now, you VCs out there - may be time to back a tech company called "Hut-Hut"...

Author's note : August 13 -For you starving football fans, know pre-season is  back, but you may also enjoy Paul Greenberg's post about  CRM and the Green Bay Packers. 

Comments

[Jason Wood]

Vinnie...I LOVED this post. Kudos!

At some point, when I'm a minority owner in the Eagles (it could happen!), I'm going to contract you to make sure Philly is bleeding edge in all facets of infotech deployment. :)

[viinnie mirchandani]

Jason, only if I can rig it so the Bucs win the playoffs!

You may enjoy also how tech has changed a few other sports

Tech and baseball

http://florence20.typepad.com/renaissance/2005/08/technology_inno.html

Tech and Winter Games

http://florence20.typepad.com/renaissance/2006/02/technology_inno_5.html

Tech and Daytona 500

http://florence20.typepad.com/renaissance/2006/02/technology_inno_7.html

[StuartJones]

From an English Chartered Accountant's viewpoint [Chartered Accountant = CPA) (i.e. I don't understand American football) when will these changes enter accountancy? See first paragraph.

[vinnie mirchandani]

Stuart, there are other posts on technology influencing your football (soccer), cricket - the search blog should allow you to find them on this blog.

Also this post was written in 2005. If you have not seen much innovation in accountancy since, maybe time for another profession?

Kidding aside, I see scanning and imaging and barcoding and mobile technology change accounts payable/payment processes, massive analytical capabilities reshape forensic accounting, SaaS models allowing for accounting firms to move from local offices to global delivery, new opportunities for SAS 70 and other audits in world of cloud computing.