As far as watching sports, watching golf is 10 times more interesting today with HD, shot tracer, ball speed numbers, etc. I don't know how anyone watched golf before 2000.
Technology Changes which have enhanced/deterred sports
- Thread starter cyputz
- Start date
It’s so ingrained now that we take it for granted - on-screen first down line. I don’t know if enhanced the game, but it probably changed the way we watch it. Technology eventually expanded to stuff like “field goal range” indicator (I’m annoyed by an element of that but won’t elaborate here)
There's a fantastic program (~83 min runtime though) put out by the NFL about broadcast tech evolution over the decades. Goes behind-the-scenes with items like the score bug, yellow line, skycam, pylon cams, etc.
(Won't embed, but the full vid is on YouTube.)
This is the for the NFL for sure. As much as PEDs have been a story in baseball, I think NFL teams and the league itself are in on the PED train with players.
Knew someone that played for the Chiefs for a long time. He said when he came into the league in the late 80s the team tried to force him to juice and even threatened to cut him. When his career was winding down back in the late nineties his assessment of how many NFL players were on PEDs was “All of them.” He was joking a bit, but his point is that at least at that time pretty much everybody was juiced to the gills, and the teams and league were not just OK with it, but helping it.
On the bright side, the advances in surgery and nutrition/exercise have saved careers.
I have no idea if it would work but my idea to fix replay is get rid of “inconclusive evidence” and have a three person review team. Whatever two of the three think is the call go with that one. Inconclusive evidence has become a cop out over the years
At some point in the future we will laugh at either the men or women’s current track and field clothing. They can’t both create optimal speed. If the women are really getting a boost the men should be in speedos and topless instead of jam length singlets. Reverse is just as true if the men’s uniforms somehow decrease drag.
For years I golfed with a set of Wilson Staff clubs that a friend got used from a DSM club pro and that I later bought 3rd-hand from him. 1 through 4 wood and 2-9-P. All with ALUMINUM staffs!
The problem with getting rid of inconclusive evidence to overturn is many times video doesn't have the view that the official who initially made the call had on the field. Video might not have the view that made the right call but one of the zebras on the field may have had it.
I won't disagree with the time limit.
I'm confused by this: "using super slow-motion video, and watching if the ball moves and overruling catches that in the past should have held up."
Isn't that a good thing? If video, whether slo-mo or not shows it wasn't a catch, then it shouldn't be a catch.
I played throughout high school with my grandfather's old set of 'real' woods. At some point during the season the head on my 3-wood broke. Coach put it back together using a wood screw. Pretty sure that wasn't 'legal' but I think it added a bit of weight to the club and it worked great. Ended up making it to state that year!
If you consider fishing a sport, the live scope technology has kind of changed fishing. Being able to use front facing sonar to locate and spin around the boat/ice hole and find fish 100ft away from you is a game changer. Even just seeing so many boats out on Big Creek using it to locate the pan fish is kinda nuts considering the cost of the units. Not sure if it's good or bad for the sport yet but finding fish has never been easier if you can afford it.
I've watched too much of that the limited amount that I watch FB. It just makes it look different than real time, to me it seems about half the time it makes it more inaccurate.
Ohhh...I thought you were talking about baseball. Football, I would tend to agree a bit more, but I think it has more to do with some of the dumb rules they have in place. Making the catch all the way to the ground, for example. If I've secured the catch and have two feet down in the endzone, it should be a TD, period.
Full body suits for men, where I think that quote comes from, were removed for use in 2009. Yes, the body suite created so much buoyancy that resistance was heavily minimized.
Especially because every once in awhile they really screw up.
Couple others that stick out:
1. The use of advanced analytics in sports especially basketball with the 3pt shot and baseball with the defensive shift.
2. Medical tech/procedures that save or lengthen careers (Bo Jackson is a great example)
3. Coaches challenges in all sports
4. Improvement of the home viewing experience especially streaming for when not at home. As someone mentioned golf is significantly better to watch.
5. Conditioning/nutrition improvements are on a whole different level than they were a decade or two ago.
It's kind of rare but I'm also shocked there's no automated system to show if a high field goal is inside or outside of the uprights, maybe not for all football but at least FBS and NFL.
I have my old set in the garage if you want to try!
I actually have a partial set. My dad's old set from the late 1930's and a bunch of putters I collected.
Not really it just slows down the whole process, the ball is going to move some in your hands, that does not mean that you did not catch and posse it. They now have rules that they have to posse it all the way to the ground, even though their feet are in. Once the catch is made and feet are down, anything after that is unimportant.
If not then change the rule that the ball carrier must posse the ball until he is legally down and is then attempting to get back up.