The NFL Scores With Wireless Technology

Jan. 24, 2001 -- 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.

According to Weisz, the NFL has been very happy with the technology. It even passed the all-important "Ditka test."

“Mike Ditka threw his headset down, and it worked,” says Weisz of the former New Orleans and Chicago coach.

Challenging Play — A New Chapter, a New Page

Another wireless application speeding up the game is a revamped replay system that lets coaches challenge a play with the push of a button. After a short-lived effort instituted in ’86 to help refs make more accurate calls, the NFL sidelined the replay review system because of long game delays. The league reintroduced them in 1999, but with two digital advantages: nonlinear video technology and a wireless paging system.

Coaches are outfitted with a belt-pack containing a two-way, walkie-talkie-like HT750 Motorola radio connected to a special device. If they want to challenge a play, they simply push a button to signal the referee, umpire and replay booth simultaneously and nearly instantly.

“Obviously it’s a lot quicker,” says Brian Matoren, video assistant for NFL officiating, who remembers the cumbersome process. Back then, tandem VCRs recording the entire game would have to be rewound and checked to satisfy a challenge — a tedious process that slowed the action to a slow-motion standstill. Today digital video technology along with the wireless system streamlines the challenge process.

“Everything is recorded in real time digitally,” says Matoren, “and they [the officials] have the access to cue up the play immediately on a touch screen.”

This season alone, there were 247 challenges, according to NFL officials, which would have added up to a lot of stopped-game minutes in the old, low-tech days.

“Having the ability to challenge bad plays is critical because … there are usually one or two games a week that are affected by them,” says Clayton.

Of the 247 challenges, 84 were overturned. In 1999, 199 challenges were made and 57 were overturned.

Tackling the Future

The bevy of coaches each club employs also has a leg up through wireless technology with a system that lets up to eight coaches, coordinators, or assistants scattered throughout the press box and on the sidelines keep in close touch.

Hadhazy says it’s yet another way for teams to strategize.

“Some head coaches want to talk to the [defensive coaches], some want to stick to the [offensive coaches], some want a switch to be able to talk to both units at the same time,” says Hadhazy, who oversees the technical team that makes sure all units are working properly.

The league’s equity rules stipulate that both teams have the same coach-communications advantage, so if something goes wrong with the devices, a fix can be remedied quickly — usually within 30 seconds to a minute. And there’s a backup system in place so that if the wireless system experiences problems, the team can resort to a backup wired system. Along with speed, Hadhazy says the wireless communications offers flexibility over previous systems.

“The main thing we try to do is think of ways we can improve the efficiencies for players and coaches and fans as well,” says Weisz. “We’re looking at ways we can send not only voice but video and data down to head coaches.”

Teams currently study the opposition’s defensive or offensive positions through still pictures faxed from the coaches perched high above the action. While the technology to beam live video to the sidelines could be delivered in the very near future, the league isn’t ready for it. NFL rules prevent live video on the sidelines.

But there are other initiatives Motorola is exploring, including an electronic telestrator. Instead of a coach sketching out plays on an old-fashioned chalkboard, he could use an electronic device to graphically plot out the desired play or review a critical one.

“The technology is there — it’s a matter of taking it and integrating it,” says Weisz.

For now, the emphasis is on speed and leveling the playing field, so both teams have access to the same type of efficient communications, not on pushing the NFL into the world of high-tech. And defensive players remain grounded in the decidedly low-tech grid-iron of the past, relying on old-fashioned hand signals and messenger-guard communiques. Despite the wireless wonders, this weekend's game will show how the sport remains grounded in athleticism and strategy, not technology.

“If it revolutionized the game, we wouldn’t have two defensive teams in the Super Bowl,” says Clayton.