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NFL officials have weighed whether to start using an electric system to measure first downs starting with the 2025 season, according to the Washington Post‘s Mark Maske.
“The system, which the NFL has tested in game conditions in recent seasons, would involve the football being spotted manually by the on-field officials before the electronic system would determine whether that spot resulted in a first down,” Maske reported. “That system requires such a manual placement of the ball following a play and does not incorporate, for instance, the use of a chip in the football to determine whether a runner reached the first-down spot.”
Football fans have long argued for the implementation of an electronic system for down and distances in the NFL.
Andrew Brandt @AndrewBrandt
Still amazing that a league with $22 billion in annual revenues measures first downs in 2025 with:
Two refs figuring out where to spot the ball from 25 yards away; and
A couple of guys with two sticks and a chain.
Soccer utilizes goal-line technology to determine whether the ball fully crosses the line, while tennis’ Hawk-Eye system tracks the trajectory of the ball with incredible accuracy. When the NFL already puts a microchip in its footballs, lessening the need for traditional chain gangs or eliminating them altogether doesn’t seem like a huge leap.
Unfortunately for proponents of this idea, Maske’s report explained how that’s not what the change under consideration by the NFL would entail.
It wouldn’t even help in a situation like the one that emerged in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 32-29 win over the Buffalo Bills. To the naked eye, it looked like Bills quarterback Josh Allen got a critical first down in the fourth quarter. Instead, the referees placed the ball short of the marker.
NFL @NFL
The Chiefs’ defense stops them on fourth down!
📺: #BUFvsKC on CBS
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus and Paramount+ pic.twitter.com/VwGmEZ3IrW
The same outcome would’ve happened with the electronic system as described by Maske because the refs remain responsible for spotting the ball.
The most notable example where this would’ve come in handy was in 2017, when Gene Steratore used a piece of paper to confirm whether Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott had gained a first down.
B/R Gridiron @brgridiron
A piece of paper though?#SNF pic.twitter.com/lfE8PN8y3f
An NFL official told Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell in 2021 the league didn’t feel the technology was up to the level it needed to be in order to measure the ball electronically.
According to Maske, that remains the case. He reported that “there were some complaints about the amount of time taken to make first-down decisions” when the NFL tested out an electronic system in the preseason.