BeachBums
Footballguy
I've been reading posts all over the board here the past few days about "videotaping" hand signals and I've been a bit taken aback at the seeming lack of understanding of how technology could be used for cheating in the NFL (and I'm NOT saying it was in this particular case). People ask over and over "how could this have benefited the Patriots?" and "it couldn't have helped them during a game" etc. etc. So I thought I'd write this up as a little bit of perspective of how someone who works with technology every day sees this.
Everything I've read talks about an actual tape being used in this case, but there really isn't a need for a tape at all. I read a quote from a former NFL team video guy in a story in some link I followed this week that he didn't record anything when he did stuff like this so there wasn't any evidence. They didn't record it cuz it was a live feed from the camera to a booth somewhere.
While I haven't heard anything about this in the past couple of days, there were references earlier in the week to the Jets questioning the number of radio frequencies the Patriots were using during the game. To me that was MAJOR and I've been wondering what's happened to that part of the story. I'm sitting here on my laptop connected to the Internet over a 54 Mbps 802.11G wireless network connection. That wireless network connection uses radio frequencies to transmit and receive data between a wireless router and my laptop and could just as easily be used to transmit or receive video as browse the web. I've personally set up wireless networks using cheap off the shelf components (the same technology as the wireless router you have in your house) that cover acres (using antennas and repeaters).
If my local RV campground in BFE Wyoming can afford to set up a network like that (so campers can surf the web and read email in their RVs), how difficult would be for a wealthy organization like a NFL franchise to set up a live feed from a sideline camera focused on the defensive signal calling to a booth or van (roll tape of men in a darkened van with video displays of a live feed of the D coordinators synched to the network broadcast of the game), perform a real time analysis of the signals, break the code and send the defensive call in to the the O coordinator and the QB? It wouldn't be difficult at all. Any team in the league could easily build a system like this with cheap off-the-shelf technology.
Again, I don't think this is what was happening in this case (the fact that there was a tape which was sent to Goodell seems to indicate that there wasn't a live feed), but the potential exists for all kinds of CIA/Bourne Identity tactics. You can get an idea of the level of sophistication of an NFL scouting operation in this article on ESPN by Jeremy Green, a former NFL scout. Couple the kind of operation Green talks about in the article with the kind of technology I'm talking about here. Scary huh?
So anyway, for what it's worth, there's a great deal of potential for this to be taken to a whole other level technologically and for it to dramatically affect the outcome of games. I'm NOT SAYING this is what the Patriots did, but the potential is there. It absolutely could allow an inferior team to win games.
Everything I've read talks about an actual tape being used in this case, but there really isn't a need for a tape at all. I read a quote from a former NFL team video guy in a story in some link I followed this week that he didn't record anything when he did stuff like this so there wasn't any evidence. They didn't record it cuz it was a live feed from the camera to a booth somewhere.
While I haven't heard anything about this in the past couple of days, there were references earlier in the week to the Jets questioning the number of radio frequencies the Patriots were using during the game. To me that was MAJOR and I've been wondering what's happened to that part of the story. I'm sitting here on my laptop connected to the Internet over a 54 Mbps 802.11G wireless network connection. That wireless network connection uses radio frequencies to transmit and receive data between a wireless router and my laptop and could just as easily be used to transmit or receive video as browse the web. I've personally set up wireless networks using cheap off the shelf components (the same technology as the wireless router you have in your house) that cover acres (using antennas and repeaters).
If my local RV campground in BFE Wyoming can afford to set up a network like that (so campers can surf the web and read email in their RVs), how difficult would be for a wealthy organization like a NFL franchise to set up a live feed from a sideline camera focused on the defensive signal calling to a booth or van (roll tape of men in a darkened van with video displays of a live feed of the D coordinators synched to the network broadcast of the game), perform a real time analysis of the signals, break the code and send the defensive call in to the the O coordinator and the QB? It wouldn't be difficult at all. Any team in the league could easily build a system like this with cheap off-the-shelf technology.
Again, I don't think this is what was happening in this case (the fact that there was a tape which was sent to Goodell seems to indicate that there wasn't a live feed), but the potential exists for all kinds of CIA/Bourne Identity tactics. You can get an idea of the level of sophistication of an NFL scouting operation in this article on ESPN by Jeremy Green, a former NFL scout. Couple the kind of operation Green talks about in the article with the kind of technology I'm talking about here. Scary huh?
So anyway, for what it's worth, there's a great deal of potential for this to be taken to a whole other level technologically and for it to dramatically affect the outcome of games. I'm NOT SAYING this is what the Patriots did, but the potential is there. It absolutely could allow an inferior team to win games.