The NFL is about to embrace VR to train officials

Are you ready for some virtual reality Football?

If you are a fan of the NFL, you know that one of the biggest issues that surrounds the sport is the inconsistent officiating by the referees. It’s also an issue that is nearly impossible to fix due the importance of referees and the hardship of their job. But the NFL is about to embrace a budding technology to hopefully help fix the problem: VR.

According to an email sent from an NFL Spokesperson to SportsTechie, the NFL testing out training officials with VR and the immersive 3D world that it can create for training. Creating real-speed simulations of games or certain plays is nearly impossible to do away from real-game scenarios. Nothing at this point has come close recreating these elements that are so important for officials, but VR might be the technology to finally do this adequately enough to help train officials for certain scenarios they currently makes mistakes on.

“We will be testing new technology for training officials, including virtual reality simulators and POV cameras,” told the NFL spokesperson to SportsTechie in the email. It is not clear if this will work as well as expected, but the embracing of this tech or something new in the future should bode well to enhance the NFL experience.

NFL is taking a proactive approach to improve the game with new tech

Amidst the NFL blunders with domestic violence and player’s suspensions, this move might actually improve the quality of the game. Officiating is one of the most head-scratching elements of the games due to the inconsistency and the myriad of penalties that rain throughout the game.

Adopting this new form of tech could help officials and make their job easier and better, and as a fan of football, I’m all for that.