The NFL is constantly growing and evolving its ways of producing broadcasts and showcasing the game in different ways. It was only 20 years ago that instant replay only existed for broadcasts, and the officials, outside of coaches’ challenges, wouldn’t second-guess what’s been called.
With the playoff field recently expanded and the regular season one week longer, there is more football than ever. The best part of that, is you can select from so many more games, making NFL picks against the spread. 18 weeks as opposed to 17, seven teams in the postseason in each league as opposed to six.
NFL Continues To Expand
As time goes on and social media continues to grow as a source of game discussion, the referees are under more scrutiny now than ever. Whatever call they make on the field, right or wrong, would usually stay on the field, and that would be that. But in the digital age today and with fans being able to live-react wherever they’d like, it’s more important to get things correct.
Not that it wasn’t important before, but still. With the use of hawkeye technology, the league is making sure to capture as many angles as possible. This is also going to continue to allow them to speed up the review processes and keep the game moving as fast as they can get it to. Multiple angles of the same play can be viewed simultaneously, to ensure quicker looks.
The most important thing, though it can’t always stick, is continuity in the contest so a team driving down the field won’t lose too much momentum in having to stand on the sideline for too long. The best part about this technology is that every single play is automatically captured and saved, now viewable immediately from every angle it was recorded at.
This is tremendous for the league, and coming to the end of it’s second year of service, it’s served them rather well.
The Game Continues To Grow
The NFL is constantly growing, and is now a universal game. Though all 32 teams call somewhere in America home, several countries are now hosts to contests. With there already being several England games a year, they expanded to Mexico City and even Germany during the 2022-23 campaign. This marked even more history.
This was the first time Germany ever hosted a game, and the league should be counting its lucky stars that Tom Brady opted to play another year, the most popular QB in the game able to headline a matchup in a brand new place. It’s easy marketing when you can throw a team he’s playing for in, because they’re never going to fold.
As for the games at Wembley Stadium, they continue to draw fans from near and far. The diehards will find a way to fly across the pond to go check it out, while the locals come out in numbers, repping any jersey they can find in the back of their closets. It’s the only time where there is no clear home-field advantage, and could very well be looked at as a neutral site.
It’s even more likely that more countries will get the opportunity to host games in the future. The league would probably make those announcements at the conclusion of the Super Bowl. And there is just so much opportunity. More networks to stream on. More people to involve. They know how well they can do.
Continued Social Media Growth
The game is so global now, that the biggest discussions will be occurring on social media, whether that be for better or worse. They have done a great job, perhaps better than all of the other major sports leagues, of making highlights readily available. During any primetime game, 60 seconds or less after a major play occurs, they have the play clipped from the broadcast and up on their social media channels.
Everybody wants to be a journalist online these days, and with the chance to use videos from the game to make points, the league is making it easier for other folks to do just that. They lead conversations well, and know to keep the fans engaged.
At the end of the day, the fans drive the game. Through the use of their new replay technology and smart social media strategies, this is more easily possible.
