Now that we’ve all had a chance to fall in love with instant replay on our HD televisions, the NFL is looking into ways to get rid of it.
ESPN reports that last year, the NFL allowed four companies to install cameras in NFL stadiums to track every play and relay the data to servers. It is said that this is paving the way for sensors to be placed in footballs. 
These sensors would be linked to computers in the stadium and to servers offsite and would indicate whether or not a ball crossed a goal line, or if the ball passed the threshold for a first down or if it were out of bounds.
There is currently no timeline for putting this into place, but the NFL says don’t be surprised if you start to see parts of it as early as next season.
Knowing if a ball is out of bounds or if it crossed the marker for a first down would cut down on challenges and instant replay.
This is probably a good thing. I don’t really feel like the pace of the game suffers with challenges, but sometimes the referees don’t have access to the same great angles that are brought us in crystal clear HD. Where we see an obvious first down, the referee will find himself without enough information to overturn his preliminary ruling of not reaching the first down.
The officiating in the NFL has been getting better over the past few years, but if a company can put a sensor in a ball and help the referees make an even better call, I’m all for it.
