Ah football season is finally here for all to enjoy. Wait a minute this is a tech blog. Why is football being mentioned on a tech blog? I have two passions, one obviously is technology, and the other is hard nose American football. I am about to merge the two together while I show you the amazing technology behind the world's greatest sport.
First, I'm going to show you what the players gotta wear to stay safe and perform. Then, I'll give you a look into some of the stuff off the field you may be interested in. Let's stop wasting time and get to it.
Helmets
Added in the 1930's, the helmet is now the life savor for our nation's top athletes. A player can have up to 15 G's of impact during a collision. The helmet's purpose is to keep the player alive and hopeful able to play another down after getting a bone crushing hit. Helmet's started as leather pads and have progressed into high tech composites and metals. Today, cheap helmets are just simply plastic and foam running around $100. However, if you want the best get ready to shell out over $400.
The newer helmets produced by Schutt Sports involves a sophisticated design starting with pads made out of thermoplastic urethane which replaces it's foam counterparts. The whole purpose of the newer tech is to make the helmet lighter, cleaner, and cooler for the player. Below you will see an impressive video that goes into more specifics of how this simple dome keeps a player from ending his career in a wheelchair.
The newer helmets produced by Schutt Sports involves a sophisticated design starting with pads made out of thermoplastic urethane which replaces it's foam counterparts. The whole purpose of the newer tech is to make the helmet lighter, cleaner, and cooler for the player. Below you will see an impressive video that goes into more specifics of how this simple dome keeps a player from ending his career in a wheelchair.
enjoy the titanium facemask
Shoulder Pads
Shoulder pads are the most customizable piece of a player's uniform. Each position has different performance demands. For instance a wide receiver will need a lot of movement and light weight padding while a quarterback will look for more padding to absorb impacts from all angles. As you see to the left you can go small and light to big and heavy seen below. Also, there are a lot of accessories you can add and I don't mean bags and necklaces. 
Here is a list of the accessories I'm talking about: rib protector (hard plastic or soft foam padding), back plates (various sizes), and collars. These pads run anywhere from $100 - $500 before you start adding the added back, collar, and rib protectors. Hey, go cheap and you could be feeling a broken neck or cracked rib. I think the biggest thing about finding a good set of shoulder pads is comfort. There are a lot of screws hiding in these pads and you can feel them a bit. Before purchasing a set for yourself or loved one try it on, have somebody smack your shoulders and chest a few times really hard. Still feel soft? Good, now rotate your arms and shake your shoulders and if all is well shell out the big time bucks for your new weapons. Yeah, I said weapons these things can really hurt when they drive into you at 20 mph.
Gloves
There are pretty much just 2 types of gloves, lineman and receiver. Both types of gloves will run from $20-80, but you may have to buy a couple of pairs in case one set gets ripped up. There is not much you have to worry about with gloves. For receivers they are made to be thin and light. Usually, you will get a kind of tacky surface around the finger and palm to help grip the ball. Mostly though all of the gloves are just made of a mesh polyester or neoprene type cloth. For lineman, the gloves will get more padding and usually bigger strapping around the wrist to keep things stiff. We wouldn't want your wrist and fingers popping out of joint now would we.
Pants (and what goes under them)
Let's be honest there is not a whole lot to the polyester spandex pants you see on the field and most football teams even in youth leagues will supply them. So, let's look at what goes in and under them. You will see a pair of 29.99 undergarments with a top of the line supporter cup as seen below. These beat the old plastic sharp cups of the past. Now they have nice gel padding around them to keep your junk from getting pinched. And the shorts have a pocket built in so you don't have to use those awful straps around the sides. Even the shorts have stepped up their game using an anti-microbial fabric that helps push out the moisture and keep bacteria from lurking around your junk. They are both built to reduce friction and push out the moisture so you can stay running all day. I'll be honest the newer undergarments for the modern football player is the biggest improvement in athletics and they are the cheapest part of the uniform. Hooray for progress!
There are also a lot of pads you have to wear below the belt. Hip pads, thigh pads, and knee gaurds are all slipped into the pants. These are always just cheap foam and slide into pockets formed in the pants legs, except for the hip pads. Unfortuanately, the hip pads are buttoned to the waist of the pants. This is not comfortable when you get a hit. luckily some of these undergarments have hip pads as well as rib and shoulder pads up top as well. I would like to thank Under Armour for being the first I know of to add these small, but comfortable features to sportswear. The players these days don't feel the screws and buttons like they used too.
Shoes
Just like in basketball shoes have gotten ridiculous. Ranging anywhere from $40-200 for pretty much the same stuff. When it comes to football there are pretty much two types of shoes. You have shoes for artificial turf and for the natural turf. When on the natural stuff you want cleats usually big ones if the field is wet. While on turf the cleat is much different. I like to think of it as rubber teeth lining the outside of the sole. These teeth will allow the player to change direction and grip the turf when needed. This is far different than outdoor cleats that are just big metal spikes that dig into the field and allow you to push off in any direction. So if you wanna go pro you will need the indoor/outdoor versions so I hope you have a couple of Benjamin's leftover after all your other gear. One small bit of advice, make sure your new kicks have a sock liner. A sock liner will give you that extra cushion and tight fit in the shoe helping to prevent blistering and they feel really nice on the toes.
That's right, Jordan is going NFL people
The Yellow Line
That's right that annoying, but helpful line indicating where the first down is. How do they do it? We have even seen them add the black line for the line of scrimmage, a red highlight when the team gets in the redzone and some networks will add a line for original line of scrimmage or where a field goal would be kicked from if a team was to attempt it. So let's find out shall we, because I have always been so fascinated the way it lights up on my TV.
Most of the graphics you see on the field every Sunday is produced from a company called Sportvision. They have created all the cool graphics for football, baseball, NASCAR, and even a lot of news networks. But we are here for football and that damn yellow line has me mighty curious.
I'm going to give you a simplified version of how this works or else I would need thousands of words to do it. So in 2003 the NFL and Sportvision adopted this technology to all broadcasts along with another important piece of technology known as Skycam. Using 8 computers, 3 encoders, a mess of cables, and a junk load of cameras Sportvision is able to make a virtual model of the field. Essentially behind the scenes they have a computer generated field with all the players and could make a really cool animated football game if they wanted, but that's not their goal. Using the first down marker the computers know where to put the line, and since they have a 3D model of the field (thanks to Skycam and the other 25 cameras positioned around the stadium) and players, they can create a line right where they need to. Also, they grab a palette of colors for everything on the field (like the brown football and orange field markers), and also a palette for the players (skin tones, uniform colors, etc.). This allows the computers to make the players colors go over the line so it appears they are walking right through it. So, you can get rid of those green screen theories because it doesn't matter what the colors are as long as the computers load the proper color palettes before kickoff.
So basically you are watching a real football game on top of a virtual football game both at the same time. Because of this they can add what is called VI (Virtual Insertions), like all the cool border graphics you see on the jumbo tron or all the arrows and stats that show up on the field during a telecast. They just have to make sure the computer knows what graphics to use at the right time. Unfortuanely, this also let's them throw adds and videos on your screen. Imagine your watching a game and the bottom right 1/3 of the field is a virtual screen showing a Nike commercial and the ball gets a big pink swoosh on it while the FOX logo suddenly turns into Michael Jordan. Yes, this scenario can happen quite easily.
I'm done for the day folks. I hope you enjoyed the post, and enjoy the game.
