It started with Goodell’s edict before the 2017 season to speed up the games, which led the league to centralize its review process.įrom that point forward, every instant replay decision-whether it came after a coach’s challenge or a change of possession or a touchdown or a last two-minute scenario-would be confirmed or overturned inside New York’s Art McNally Gameday Central (AMGC), located up five sets of tumbled-marble stairs at the league office. The original instant replay system from the mid-1980s that used primitive walkie-talkies (leading referee John Keck to once misinterpret the words “pass incomplete’’ as “pass is complete,’’ giving the Raiders a gift victory) has evolved into a well-oiled machine through emerging technology.

The reason, again, is live-live, the term the NFL uses to describe how their New York replay officials-Walt Anderson, Perry Fewell and Wayne Mackie-watch every play of every game…with new saucy software at their fingertips. The numbers confirm that the NFL is wrapping games up in a more concise three-hour package, the average game-time this season down one full minute from 2020. Like they were expecting, but we already made the call and went back on the field.’’ “Almost to the point broadcasts can’t keep up. “We’ve made calls a lot faster,’’ the NFL’s Chief Information Officer Michelle McKenna told SportTechie just over two weeks ago. One is Cisco, which has brought even the most archaic NFL stadiums into the 21 st century, and the other is Hawk-Eye Innovations, which gives three otherwise stressed New York men the wherewithal to be replay Gods. Two companies-connected by their expertise in connectivity-have collaborated to make instant replay entirely more instant this season. As the longest regular season in history concludes this weekend, the quickest season in terms of bandwidth technology is being acknowledged in and around the league's Park Avenue offices. On the fifth floor of the league headquarters in New York, in a room named after a referee, the NFL has finally turned instant replay into mostly a snap-of-the-finger exercise.

But only the few, the proud, the New York City replay official can watch live-live. Cox/Getty Images (Replay review) Maddie Meyer/Getty Images (Arizona Cardinals) Scott Taetsch/Getty Images (DeVonta Smith) Tom Pennington/Getty Images (challenge flag)Īpproximately 17 million people watch NFL broadcasts live. Adam Glanzman/Getty Images (Vrabel) Cisco (AMGC) Kevin C. 28th this season, starting a technological chain of events that involves Cisco, Hawk-Eye Innovations and the NFL league office.

Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel vociferously throws a red flag to initiate an instant replay review on Nov.

Replay book summary