Injury plague in the NFL catalyst for greater innovation

The game of football is still in its infancy. The invention of the forward pass and its official adoption in 1906 is proof positive that fundamentally the game has room to advance. “By all accounts, the forward pass was the invention that saved the game of football after a great rugby player from Yale in the 1880s, Walter Camp, pioneered rules changes that slowly transformed rugby into the new game of American Football.” -Birth of Pro Football

Player safety has been the catalyst for football evolution. A fact currently supported by the NFL’s 1st and Future initiative dealing with this very topic and others. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell @nflcommish gets booed often, but in my opinion, he was right to legislate the violent hits out of the NFL.

History seems to be repeating itself as the wave of change has now begun. “Former NFL players’ settled a 1 billion dollar lawsuit that accused the NFL of hiding the risks of repeated concussions in order to return players to the field. The deal avoids the need for a trial and means the NFL might never have to disclose what it knew, and when.”

Safety innovation remarkable influence on the NFL’s killer past

Well over 120 years ago precedent for new innovation today was set of events that triggered the forward pass. “After several serious and fatal injuries resulting from close formation offenses, protests came from men in high places…even President Theodore Roosevelt. They threatened prohibition of the sport. The forward pass was the silencer!” Edwin J. Pollock, Philadelphia Bulletin

I am William Brown and being an entrepreneur, football coach, and UX/UI designer all wrapped into one leads to a unique skill set. #DataVisualization and #PredictiveAnalytics are my passion however at my core I am a college and professional football coach for over 17 years.

“William Brown is a forward-thinking guy who has told me on several occasions that he feels that defensive coordinators are probably about a decade behind offensive coordinators. He says that while offensive coordinators continue to innovate and experiment on the offensive side of the ball while challenging the very boundaries of every defensive formation, that very few defensive coordinators attack their opponents with the same zest and zeal.” Mike Podoll is Associate Publisher of This Is AFCA magazine and of AFCAweekly.com

Who are the practitioners of the inspired movement?

Years after the forward pass saw action Bill Walsh, 3 times Super Bowl winning head football coach of the San Francisco 49ers, spoke of the forward pass in sophisticated terms, as a graduate student at San Jose State University. In 1958 he wrote his master’s thesis, “Flank formation football; stress: defense” where he discussed the impact of the forward pass. “Because the forward pass has been found to be such a potentially effective weapon with endless numbers of possible variations, new innovations are continually being initiated.”

An upgrade dictated by creating is needed in football. There are many barriers, but the core needs of a football coach are more emotional than practical. Everything is tied to winning and preparation is key so solutions should be focused on solving more than one problem.

So what is the next great innovation?

Like many, I recognize that the time is now to spawn change. There is no larger thrill than being creative and designing solutions around a greater purpose. We want users of our solutions to emotionally connect with our collective vision, therefore, we ask questions and solve problems through conversations with others.

Understanding the pain points that football organizations suffer through is built into my experience. The necessity for technological advancement requires creative people who understand that a user-centered design (UCD) is the key to industry buy-in.

Innovations sparked by dark times were not limited to only addressing the injury crisis. Offensive and defensive principles developed along with schemes from Knute Rockne’s 4 Horsemen at Notre Dame, to Don Faurot split-T formation, football intellectual evolution began.

Football is a game packed with massive amounts of data. Not all of that data is relevant considering how it is organized and consumed. Data visualization and consumption is where we focus because it is ground zero for major changes.

It’s only a matter of time before an innovation as disruptive as the forward pass will make its way to the game football. Disruption will stem from the study of unique, hidden, and analyzable data, however, its difficult to anticipate the next big disruption so far out.

Luck favors the prepared man

The article How RFID Chips Are Changing The NFL focused on the use of biometric data and how football coaches will leverage this data to better understand their players’ physical conditions during practice and games.

The author made a compelling argument for the early adoption of technology in football. “The NFL doesn’t currently allow for this kind of biometric data collection during games, though — during the game, coaches must still rely on their instincts and experience.”

Instincts and experience are what football coaches rely on regardless of technological advancements. Ask Bill Belichick about his experience with the Microsoft tablet.

“I just can’t take it anymore, he said at a news conference. As you have probably noticed, I’m done with the tablets,” he said. I’ll use the paper pictures from here on because I just have given it my best shot. I’ve tried to work through the process. But it just doesn’t work for me, and that’s because there’s no consistency to it.”

When it come to new technologies a football coach instinctively will ask a variety of questions on how he should consume new data and why he should consume it?

Any technological solution needs to contrast the coaches’ current decision-making patterns preferably in real-time. Adding data boost those decisions when a coach visualizes data, and it lets him create an exploratory environment where new insights can be discovered based on questions he may have. Since the data is different for each team it still comes down to coaching decisions.

At the precipice of technology and sports

So now we are at the precipice of innovation and sports/technology communities like Starters have a natural mandate to exist and facilitate progress by bringing like-minded innovators, sports lovers, and entrepreneurs into one community. Sky's the limit! The internet is swirling with questions on if #NFLFootball has peaked. Its an interesting conversation to have but history tells us that its only a matter of time until the next big event.