The NFL Scores With Wireless Technology

Jan. 24 -- As the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants prepare to tangle on Tampa's turf in Super Bowl XXXV, a neutral party is quietly working behind the scenes to give both teams an edge: wireless technology.

While not the star of the NFL’s biggest game of the season, wireless communications have slowly but steadily woven their way into the fabric of pro football. In a game where communicating is key, and players, coaches, referees and other officials are balkanized throughout huge stadiums, a mix of old and new technology brings a certain unifying strategy to the logistics and speeds up the game.

Fighting the Roar of the Crowd

One of three main systems used by the NFL is a one-way radio through which a coach on the sidelines can communicate plays directly to his quarterback, who has a small radio receiver embedded in his helmet. A coach with a bird's eye view in the coaches' box calls down the play to someone on the sidelines who relays the play to the quarterback. It’s a three-person, technological version of the old, defunct radio system pioneered by Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown.

“What it’s done is it’s allowed coaches, particularly if they want to go 'no huddle,' to speed up the game,” says John Clayton, senior football writer for ESPN.com. “It gives a little bit of flexibility to the coach as long as he doesn’t get too excited.” (ESPN.com, like ABCNEWS.com, is owned by Disney.)

Before, coaches would have to send a player onto the field to tell his teammates what to do or would have to rely on hand signals from the sidelines to communicate a play. Today’s swift wireless system uses digital scrambling and encryption to keep the calls private and the game moving.

“[You don’t] want the other team to hear or fans to pick it up on scanners,” says Dave Weisz of Motorola, which provides much of the cellular and radio technology used in the NFL.

Crossed signals have foiled earlier attempts at radio communications as far back as the 1950s. (See sidebar.) Today’s systems are a new breed, and the chances of breaking into or stumbling upon radio play-calling are extremely slim. The encryption scheme has “more than 268 million possible codes, and each team has its own code which is indecipherable by any other team or person trying to listen in,” says Peter Hadhazy, the NFL’s director of game operations, who recalls that security was the first issue clubs were concerned about when the system was being contemplated.