All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
The folks upstairs at football games are watching. Lurking behind sheets of plate glass above the sea of fans, they scan the field, looking for chinks in the opponent's armor or mistakes by their own team.
They're the photo technicians used by every NFL team. Armed with cameras, they steal snapshots of the action and pass them along to coaches on the sidelines and in the booth.
As recently as the late 1980s, the Polaroid camera was the trusted tool for the staff in the coaches' box. The cameras clicked with every snap of the ball, capturing the position of player formations just as movement began. Sixty seconds later, the image was developed, and by the end of the drive, coaches had a pretty good idea of how things looked to the birds above.
As technology is wont to do, modern tools have evolved, driving rapid change in the pigskin business. Video has become the dominant currency of football intelligence – play to play, week to week, and season to season. The video eye has replaced the old-fashioned movie camera and advises teams on all strategy: understanding defenses, adjusting offensive plans, evaluating a cornerback college star, and sizing up newly available free-agent players.
Coaches can have freeze frames of their play schemata as soon as the play is over. Over time, this creates a credible way of evaluating a team's offensive and defensive strategy. After the season is over, video feeds the decision-making process, too.
Digital video hardware and software from Avid Sports, Webb, and Montage have changed the ways coaches and team management use video for game analysis, talent scouting, opponent analysis and player development.
Tapeless video, at the vanguard of the cutting edge, has been sweeping the league since 1994. Where there's no tape, there's digital data, and that means freedom and flexibility.
"It's become a fundamental component now," said Henry Kunttu, video director for the Buffalo Bills. "Every team really relies on them. If [a coach] determines there's a problem at a certain position, he'll take [ video ] to his players and make adjustments based on that."
