Athletes and trainers draw on the latest technology to improve performance, as a split second can mean the difference between winning and losing. However, there are opportunities for technology to also be used to help fans increase their enjoyment of their favorite sports.
 
Zebra Technologies and the National Football League (NFL) are finding ways to enhance the experience of fans through the use of RFID. Zebra Sports GM Eric Petrosinelli noted that in 2013, the NFL began investigating technology companies to be the Official Player Tracking Provider of the NFL. The league was interested in evolving the statistics associated with the game to both enhance the fan experience and provide more data to clubs to improve competitiveness and player health and safety.
 
Zebra utilized its heritage in providing operational visibility to 95% of Fortune 500 companies to create a player tracking solution that was specific to the game of football and would give the NFL more visibility into their athletes’ performance on the field. The Zebra Sports Solution leverages the same tracking and location solutions technology that Zebra implements globally for multinational corporations in healthcare, retail, manufacturing and transportation & logistics.
 
In 2014, the NFL installed Zebra’s real-time location system (RTLS) receivers in 17 stadiums. The receivers communicated with RFID transmitters located inside the shoulder pads of each player to capture precise location measurements, providing “Next Gen Stats” to fans. These stats include player speed, distance traveled, alignment, acceleration and deceleration.
 
Petrosinelli said that as part of the next phase of the Next Gen Stats project, Zebra partnered with Wilson Sporting Goods in developing an instrumented football containing a Zebra RFID tag that was used throughout the 2016 NFL preseason. Following the preseason success, the balls are now being used during 2016 Thursday Night regular-season games. There is potential for the information to be used in the future on media platforms such as NFL.com and also in-game telecasts.
 
“’Next Gen Stats’ is entering its third season, and we continue to enjoy working with Zebra to give fans and teams a deeper look into the game they love,” said Vishal Shah, VP, Digital Media, NFL.
 
Petrosinelli noted that prior to deploying the Zebra Sports Tracking Solution in the NFL, coaches, athletes, and fans only had access to “output statistics” (i.e. touchdowns, yards gained, receptions, etc.) Due to the ability to collect tracking data, fans now have the capacity to dive into the story and understand why a team or individual performed the way they did.
 
Petrosinelli added that the Zebra Sports Solution gives fans access to new statistics in real time, provides them with deeper insights about their favorite players and teams, and allows broadcasters to enhance the viewing experience. In addition, the tracking data can be leveraged by coaches, players and team personnel to gain schematic, tactical and performance insights to improve the game.
 
The “input statistics” (i.e. speed, total distance covered, acceleration, etc.) collected by the Zebra Sports Solution provides access to the story behind the competition, forever transforming coaching and player personnel evaluations and how fans relate to sports through cross-channel engagement.
 
The data gathered by RFID has given NFL fans and clubs alike more information to work with, as well as a better understanding of what is happening on the field. This is enabling the NFL to collect information that will improve the way fans and clubs watch, coach, play and analyze the game.