Steelers integrating helmet cameras into practice routine

[RuthlessBurgher]

Steelers, Packers tinker with technology in practice

By Kevin Patra
Around the League writer
Published: June 22, 2014 at 11:31 a.m.
Updated: June 23, 2014 at 09:36 a.m.

Two of the NFL's most traditional teams are getting technological.

First we start in Pittsburgh, where the Steelers are one of 33 NFL and NCAA teams to use Schutt Vision helmets. The full-contact helmets are embedded with HD video cameras that allow coaches to review what the players see during practices.

"This time of year, I think it's appropriate to be open to the growth of technology in our game," coach Mike Tomlin told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "So I'll do things such as that and look at innovative things and see if it can be useful to us."

Of course, Tomlin also admitted twice that the film "gave me a headache."

The Steelers have been using the helmet cam with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, which could help with identifying fronts and coverages. At the very least, the helmet camera would help the coaches view the action from the quarterback's perspective.

For quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner, the technology eventually might help the Steelers' backup signal-callers just as much as Big Ben.

"You would like to think that if you see something from his eye level that it could potentially give every other quarterback who wasn't getting that rep a chance to view that," Fichtner said. "We really haven't taken it to that next level yet. It's new technology, so sometimes it's tough to grasp right away."

Next we travel to Green Bay, where the Packers are using a GPS system that they hope will help reduce injuries, per the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

The Packers have imported GPS technology from Catapult Sports -- an Australian company that introduced GPS technology for monitoring athletes in the early 2000s -- to help keep track of their players' workload during practices.

The team hopes the information provided by the GPS system can yield some insight into how to tailor workout regiments to try to avoid injuries that have plagued players the past few seasons.

Technological tinkering by teams during the offseason isn't new, but with the pervasiveness of systems now available, we expect more franchises to utilize high-tech gadgets more and more to try to gain an edge.

[URL]http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000360809/article/steelers-packers-tinker-with-technology-in-practice[/URL]

Steelers integrating helmet cameras into practice routine
Posted by Josh Alper on June 23, 2014, 10:12 AM EDT

The Packers are using GPS monitoring in hopes of reducing injury risk for some of their players, but they aren’t the only team investigating new technologies this offseason.

The Steelers have started using an HD helmet camera system called SchuttVision to offer coaches a chance to see what players are seeing while they are on the field. The technology was unveiled in January and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown have been the first two players to wear it during practice sessions. Offensive coordinator Todd Haley said that the team is still figuring out how to make the best use of the information gleaned from the tape.

“You can identify the fronts and when we are pointing out [middle linebackers] and stuff like that because usually the eyes are looking where he’s pointing,” Haley said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “You can see the direction the head is at the snap. It’s interesting technology. It’s a neat concept. We haven’t done a whole bunch with it, but the technology is phenomenal. If not for anything else, it forces the player that has it on to be on his P’s and Q’s.”

Quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner thinks it could be a useful teaching tool for backup quarterbacks to see the field through Roethlisberger’s eyes, but, as Haley said, the team is just starting to sort through the applications of the technology. Other teams — there are 33 at the pro and college level using SchuttVision in some manner — will be doing the same thing as they try to optimize every minute of practice time. Those that find those ways the fastest should give themselves an advantage for at least as long as it takes for the next technological advance to change the field again.

[URL]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/23/steelers-integrating-helmet-cameras-into-practice-routine/[/URL]

[Eich]

Meanwhile, the Patriots* are busy integrating it into their live, game-day routine, with a direct feed to Ernie Adams.

[Shawn]

I wonder if Urban Meyer gave Tomlin this idea. He was using it last year.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Helmet cam could be coming to NFL games
Posted by Mike Florio on June 23, 2014, 1:53 PM EDT

As the NFL moves toward using drones to enhance the images generated by football games, an old-school technology (relatively speaking) could be taking fans into the huddle — and elsewhere on the gridiron.

Nearly a quarter century after the World League of American Football used a camera tucked into the padding of a helmet to display in-game images, the NFL could eventually be using the SchuttVision system, with a camera between the facemask screws at the hairline of the helmet, during games.

“This is something that networks want in their broadcasts,” product inventor JR Liverman told Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I don’t have a crystal ball in knowing when that will happen. I absolutely believe that this will be integrated into the broadcasts on all levels of football over the next years.”

The Arena Football League began using the SchuttVision helmet this season, and teams at lower levels of the sport previously implemented helmet cameras for practice sessions. The Steelers have become the first NFL team to adopt SchuttVision for training purposes, and others surely will follow suit. (The Bears added their own camera to the side of a quarterback’s helmet last year.)

It seems to be only a matter of time before the cameras blanketing the field will be complemented by cameras in the field, with that footage eventually becoming the source of evidence to overturn, or to uphold, key calls.

[URL]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/23/helmet-cam-could-be-coming-to-nfl-games/[/URL]