Why Hawk-Eye Technology Won't Eliminate Human Error

The Kansas Chiefs will make another regular-season trip to Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium this fall. And because the Bills and Josh Allen run the "Tush Push" more often than any team besides the Philadelphia Eagles, odds are good for more controversy.

Despite this week’s confirmation that the NFL will use Sony’s Hawk-Eye technology to measure the line to gain, effectively benching chain gangs, one significant aspect of the Tush Push hasn’t changed. Human officials will still spot forward progress with human judgment.

Human judgment played a crucial role in the AFC Championship Game in Kansas City when the Bills were leading 22-21 with 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Facing fourth-and-1 from the Chiefs’ 41-yard line, Allen and the Bills attempted their version of the Tush Push, but Kansas City officially held them to no gain (the ruling on the field and the spot was no gain, and the replay official couldn’t see definitive video evidence to overturn the call).

Patrick Mahomes then engineered a five-play, go-ahead touchdown drive, and the Chiefs wound up winning, 32-29.

Tested extensively last season, the virtual measurement system quickly and accurately calculates the distance between the nose of the football and a first down or touchdown –with cameras, not with chips in footballs.

"The NFL and Sony are integrating world-class on-field officiating with state-of-the-art technology to advance football excellence," said Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations.

"Combining the art of officiating with Sony's trusted Hawk-Eye system is a healthy recipe for success in our commitment to raising the standards of accuracy, consistency, and efficiency. Replay technology and data-driven insights from Sony's Hawk-Eye Innovations aid us in advancing our efforts toward the future of football."

The future of football, though, will still include officials using their eyes, brains and feet – and umpires using eyes, brains and hands to line up the final spot with the feet of the first official’s initial spot. Exact locations at which players advance footballs is still in the human category.

And if there’s an impetus to ban the Tush Push, the most compelling reason seems to be that human officials can’t consistently see the ball to accurately spot it in a 22-player scrum.

Unless the league bans the Tush Push at the May meetings, Jalen Hurts and the Eagles will still run the Brotherly Shove, Mark Andrews and the Ravens will still run the Edgar Allen Poesh, and creative offensive minds like Ben Johnson will continue to conceive new ways that not only create short-yardage first downs and touchdowns, but obscure the views of spotting officials.

And until technology advances to implement ball-tracking chips that neutralize the current challenge of accurately locating forward progress – not only where it stops but when it stops -- the league is still stuck in neutral.