In the NFL’s constant quest to make officiating better, one of the common refrains is that the league needs to station cameras permanently along the sidelines, end lines and goal lines to ensure proper replay angles. This week, the league has begun a new experiment toward that end.
The NFL and ESPN began an experiment with having cameras in the pylons at last night’s Bills-Browns game. The idea is that the cameras might provide angles on scoring plays and on the sidelines that wouldn’t be available with the traditional cameras.
There are questions, however, about how useful such cameras will really be. Just because there’s a camera directly on the goal line doesn’t mean there will be a camera angle that definitively shows whether the ball crossed the goal line, because players could block the camera’s view. And even if players don’t block the camera’s view of the ball relative to the goal line, there won’t necessarily be a clear view of whether the ball carrier’s knee touched the ground before or after the ball crossed the line.
Still, it’s worth trying. ESPN has committed to putting cameras in the pylons for its next preseason broadcast on Monday, and if both ESPN and the NFL are satisfied with the results, Pylon Cam may be used in the regular season as well.
Photo via ESPN.