Wednesday, September 16, 2015

RFID Chips and Football

           

            As the leaves change color and the air becomes a little cooler, everyone knows that it is finally football season. However, this year, 3 teams are implementing a new piece of tech that could change the game, and our day-to-day lives, as we know it. This piece of technology is called an RFID chip. The 49ers, Lions, and Saints are the first three teams to place these chips on their player’s pads. With these coin-sized chips, the teams will be able to start a whole new page in their stats book. The chips will be tracking things such as, player participation, groupings, speed, and separation from another player. It is with these chips that, I believe, turn a new leaf on the NFL, and our society as a whole.
            Some of the biggest points made in the article are, one, the team wide affection for these new chips. Although they have so far only made it to 3 teams, the response has been amazing. New Orleans Saints head coach was quoted saying, “For us it is distance, workload, travel, all of those things. Zebra has been great to work with. We think it is helpful for us to monitor workload.” (Kravets). With the acceptance of these chips by a super bowl winning coach, it won’t be long until other teams jump on the wagon.
            Second, the new fan based feature this chip brings will automatically gain a whole new fan base. With this chip, fantasy football, gambling, and streaming will never be the same. This chip will, as mentioned earlier, open up a new page of stats for usage of picking fantasy teams. The number of possible bets will sky rocket as Ken Adams, executive editor of CDC Gaming, notes that, “You will be able to wager—over and under—how fast he ran for a touchdown." (Kravets).
            Lastly, and what I believe to be the most important portion of the article is the expansion of these RFID chips into our real world society. David Kravets, the author of the article writes, “But just like the RFID tags on the NFL players implementing these tags in everyday work spaces could tell employers where, down to the inches, employees are onsite.” (Kravets). I don’t believe Kravets touched on this point enough, as I believe this to be the future of our every day lives. Yes, this new chip is opening so many doors for the advancement of productivity in the work place or even schools, but at what cost. Do the pros of having our schools monitor where the students are down to the inch, outweigh the cons of the type of security issue it brings? Our society as a whole must decide how to approach this topic. I believe that this new technology will be great for productivity, which will help the economy. We just need to take the proper steps to ensure we are opening this new door properly.

Bibliography
            Kravets, David. "How the NFL—not the NSA—is Impacting Data Gathering Well beyond the Gridiron." Ars Technica. Ars Technica, 13 Sept. 2015. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.



1 comment:

  1. I believe that this is a very practical idea for use in the NFL. Not only does it make stats more accurate, but it also is a faster way to find them. I can see every team in the NFL using these chips soon, and I think it will spread to other sports as well. However, I do not think these chips are practical in everyday life activities. As you mentioned, schools with be able to monitor the everyday whereabouts of their students. Someday, this could turn into the government monitoring our every move. While they already have these chips in our licenses, imagine what it would be like if these chips were constantly on us. It may be a good idea to use these chips to track criminals, but not your everyday person. This could become scary.

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