Tablets will be allowed on sidelines for the first time starting with Sunday’s Hall of Fame game, though they won’t exactly be running the most cutting-edge apps. The devices will replicate the old system of transmitting still photos to the field — but faster, clearer and in color.
Sometimes with the old paper printouts, Jets coach Rex Ryan recalled, “you’d get them back and you’re like, ‘Man, what is this?’”
“This should be a lot nicer and the quality a heck of a lot better,” he said.
Previously, an automated camera delivered images to a printer on the sideline, creating that familiar sight of a quarterback staring at a sheet of paper to figure out what went wrong on an interception.
Adding video is possible in the future, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
“The purity of the game has always been not having video,” Tennessee Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “So when you’re looking at pictures you have to sometimes guess, or a lot of times the pictures aren’t what really exactly happened. That part of it is still coaching, and I kind of like that.”
The old paper system will remain in place, both as a backup in case the technology fails, and for those coaches and players who don’t want to switch.
Contributing: The Associated Press
