No more index cards: NFL to adopt Hawk-Eye tech to measure first down yardage

USA Today

01-04-2025

No more index cards: NFL to adopt Hawk-Eye tech to measure first down yardage
Sometimes the NFL is pretty far behind the times. And technology. For instance they have had the technology required to gauge whether a ball had cross the first down line for years, but declined to use it, opting instead of the eye test on the chain gang. Well, that process has finally change.
The Sony's Hawk-Eye technology will now be used to measure the line to gain. Which means less possibility of human error and guesswork. And -- as in at least one infamous instance -- no more index cards.
You might recall a few years ago in a game between the Cowboys and Raiders when now former NFL referee-turned-TV-analyst Gene Steratore attempted to measure whether a ball had reached the first down marker by using an index card. Which would only actually work if he was absolutely sure he was completely parallel with the field lines. Something he simply couldn't know without, say, an assist from some sort of technology.
As you might suspect, Steratore's rudimentary measuring device gave the Cowboys the first down and Raiders fans were furious about it.
When it happened, announcer Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth were both in utter disbelief. Michaels in particularl noted that "Here we are, across the Bay from Silicon Valley, the high-tech capital of the world, and you got an index card that determines whether it's a first down or a fourth down."
What's ironic, I suppose, is before the card maneuver, Cowboys' head coach Jason Garrett was complaining that the marker was leaning out and, had it been stood upright, it would show the Cowboys did have the first down, index card or not.
That's a lot of perfection expected from what amounts to at least four different individuals at different points of this to figure out something so precise. Hopefully the technology here will eliminate that human error. Or at least considerably limit it.