For Fantasy Football fans and statistics junkies, watching the NFL is about to get a whole lot more like Madden 2015. Yesterday, the National Football League announced it was partnering with Zebra Technologies, which provides real-time player tracking system called MotionWorks, for the 2014-2015 season. It could change the way you follow the game forever.

Zebra Technologies' real-time location system will first be installed and used in 17 stadiums for the 2014 season, tracking players and officials on the field and providing real-time information that the NFL is calling "Next Gen Stats." The new real-time stats provided by the MotionWorks system will include things like players' acceleration rates, top speed, total distance run, routes and separation distance between the ball carrier and defenders.


Stats nerds, get ready for a veritable feast of information.

"As a Next Gen Stats provider to the NFL," states Zebra's NFL site, "we capture high-speed player data and convert it into real-time, usable statistics. Imagine the playbook redefined with every snap."

For football conservatives, don't worry about Zebra brining about a revolutionary change to the competitive core of the game as-you-know-it -- at least not yet. For now, according to Ars Technica, the real-time in-game information will not be made available to NFL teams this year, while the NFL is still wrapping its head around the new system. And it won't be used -- the way FIFA implemented "Goal Control" for the World Cup 2014 in Brazil -- to verify and/or overturn any calls on the field.

It will, however, be used in broadcasts, and judging by the NFL's example images, Thursday Night Football will start looking more like Madden than anything your grandpa used to watch.

In addition to the 17 stadiums -- including all 15 stadiums hosting Thursday Night Football, plus Detroit and New Orleans -- being outfitted by Zebra, players on all 32 teams will be equipped and functioning within the location-tracking system, using a roughly Oreo-sized radio frequency identification (RFID) chip embedded within their shoulder pads.

The stadiums, themselves, will be outfitted with about 20 RFID receivers install in various locations, connected to a central hub that makes sense of all the data transmitted by players. Officials and yardsticks will also be embedded with the RFID chips, which transmit location information to the sensors at a clip of about 25 times per second.

"Working with Zebra will give fans, teams, coaches and players a deeper look into the game they love," said Vishal Shah, NFL VP of media strategy, in the league's release. "Zebra's tracking technology will help teams to evolve training, scouting, and evaluation through increased knowledge of player performance, as well as provide ways for our teams and partners to enhance the fan experience."

Any number of applications for fans, coaches, and broadcasters might emerge from the MotionWorks system and the real-time data it provides -- especially if it successfully becomes standard throughout the league after the upcoming season.

For connected stat watchers, imagine a second-screen app that lets you dissect ever aspect of the game on your tablet as you watch in real-time. For Fantasy Football fans or coaches, imagine tracking your receivers' acceleration rates, top speeds, and average separation distances throughout the course of a season, perhaps allowing you to make the call that your top guy is on a downward slope and needs to be benched. For the players, perhaps MotionWorks' data could even help shed light on injuries and health issues precipitated by the action on the field.

The NFL has a history of being friendlier to technology and innovation than some professional sports leagues in the U.S., so its introduction of real-time tracking actually isn't too shocking. But, over time, the changes this technology might bring about -- in the ways people watch the game, and in the way it's played -- just might be.

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