Why Haven't Lasers Replaced the NFL’s First Down Markers?

The NFL is a conservative organization, and like most massive sports leagues, it's fairly adverse to change. So an idea like using lasers to project a visible first down line across the playing surface, replacing the lengthy process of bringing out the chains to measure, is going to have to wait a while. But the tech exists, and it's ready for gameday. With the NFL's emphasis on video replays to enhance precision in the game, why not use lasers for first downs?

First Down Laser Systems, a company touting the systems, has been around for over a decade. The technology is so old that its most famous celebrity endorser, the TV play-by-play legend Pat Summerall, is deceased. The system is straightforward: The first down marker projects a six-inch laser line across the field. It turns off when the marker is knocked off balance, so it doesn’t blind any players, coaches or fans.

When a player is brought down close to the first down marker, rather than marching out the chains and sticks that measure first downs now, the laser fires across the field, just like the yellow line you see at home on TV, and tells you if the player made it. And there’s more time for playing or beer and truck commercials. Sounds ideal, right?

I have to confess that I sort of love when they bring out the chains, even if it takes three minutes. The referees bring the chains from all the way across the field, while the players mill around in the corners of the TV set, pointing whichever direction their team wants the call to go. The announcers are talking about how, “Oh it’s going to be close” and “It’ll depend on the spot of the ball,” which, like everything they say, is an obvious platitude, but at least it builds the tension. The camera zooms way in. The marker gets pulled to its full extension in the air and then is set right next to the ball. Sometimes the difference between fourth down and a first is a chain link, or very nub of the football. And the stadium goes nuts.

But whatever. It would probably be dramatic to worry about players running into goal posts if they were still in the front of the end zone, like they were in the early 60s, but that doesn’t mean it’s better. That little bit of drama isn’t really worth sticking up for.

The problem with the laser first down marker is that it still relies on a human being to spot the ball wherever he thinks the ball was when the runner went down. And having an indicator on the field, while helpful for the players, reduces the plausible deniability that referees have when they spot the ball. Under the current system, if the play ends within an inch or two of the first down, the referee spots it the best he can and then turns it over to the chains to make the final call. If the referee is spotting the ball on a fairly subjective play—and the rule is that the ball should be placed wherever it is when the player's knee goes down, which sounds difficult enough to ensure that almost all spots are—he basically is choosing, in that moment, whether it’s a first down or not.

This is, of course, a solvable problem. You could turn the lasers off at the snap, or at least when the ball is being spotted, and turn it on when you need a measurement. That’d mitigate the fundamental issue of lasers in the eyeballs, which is real—video demonstrations make it look like there’s still some bleed from the lasers, and even if they’re just fired at the ground, the ground is exactly where football players and their corneas pile up. Still, the placement of the ball remains up to the umpire spotting it, and there isn’t really a viable work around yet.

There are a few sensors that will detect when the ball crosses the goal line, and some have been implemented in soccer. GoalRef and Hawk-Eye were used at the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2012. GoalRef uses a wire is placed around the goal to create a magnetic field. When the ball with the special magnetic-field sensing ball passes through, a message is relayed to a watch worn by the official. Hawk-Eye has specially placed high speed cameras.

It seems like creating a magnetic field for the plane of the end zone would be more difficult than the slow, imperfect challenge system in place, and getting something comparable for each yard marker doesn’t seem viable with something like Cairos’s goal line technology.

The technology has been around for a decade, and can’t seem to gain traction in the NFL. Alan Amron, one of First Down Laser System’s developers, spoke with the AP in January about the decade-long back and forth with the NFL.

"They give me different opinions and suggestions along the way," Amron said. "We comply with them and come back. They tell me it took them years and years to implement replay and the overhead cam. The NFL right now has made it very clear to us that they didn't want to eliminate the chains, but augmenting them wouldn't be a bad idea."

Of course, football is a runaway success, with concussion concerns still not appearing to damper anyone's enthusiasm.  It’s hard to blame the NFL for adopting a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” attitude, when the issue of first-down markers pales in comparison to issues of player safety. But anything that brings more lasers everywhere is always going to have that spark of the new, novel and awesome. And it’s conceivable that change like that could go down pretty easily.