What makes the shifts potentially groundbreaking is that major-league sports are famously technophobic. The NFL outlaws computers and PDAs on the sidelines, in

What makes the shifts potentially groundbreaking is that major-league sports are famously technophobic. The NFL outlaws computers and PDAs on the sidelines, in the locker room and in press-box coaching booths within 90 minutes of kickoff. This isn't about "technophobia" it's about controlling information that may be used for gambling purposes. For better or for worse, the NFL wants information about player injuries/etc to be distributed through a controlled process ("xxx has a leg injury and his return is questionable") rather then risking that some part of the population will have the info and another part won't. Anderson would consider putting a computer chip in the ball and a laser on the goal line to replace the time-consuming debates and video reviews of scoring. Fans have been talking about this for year, but it's not quite that simple, since scoring (and yardage in general) aren't just dependent on the location of the ball, it's also dependent on if/what body part of the ball carrier is touching the ground. It's worth investigating, but it won't be a panacea. As long as opponents can't intercept the communications, he sees no reason why all players and coaches shouldn't be connected with wireless headsets, eliminating the need for a huddle or the quarterbacks' wristbands with plays listed in tiny print Again this is something that's going to be inevitable. However, looking at booth-to-sidelines and sidelines-to-player communications today, if the headset system of one team breaks down, the other team isn't allowed to use their system until the first team's system is working again. I would assume that a similar rule would be in place for a team headset system, so that if one player's headset breaks, the other team wouldn't be able use their system until it got fixed. I wouldn't expect a team helmet communication system to be implemented until the NFL can be sure that the reliability will approach 100% which will be difficult considering the abuse the equipment may undergo, as well as potential interference issues. An up-tempo pace will definitely increase the conditioning requirements of players, I'm curious as to how it will affect today's 300+ lb linemen, especially with the limited game roster.