In the wake of another frustrating instance where the NFL's officials were unable to get it right on something as fundamental as the line to gain, it's clear: the league must make it a priority to get better, not just in the moment, but on a long-term, systemic level.
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As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk astutely points out, this is no longer a matter of making excuses for human error—it's time for the NFL to take decisive steps to remove the subjectivity that plagues these crucial calls.
Let's be real here: it's 2025, and the technology is out there. The NFL has the resources, the data, and the drive to get it right. But, as Florio notes, the implementation of that technology remains a work in progress.
The league has been testing optical tracking technology that could potentially eliminate the need for the chains and human eyes altogether. This would be a monumental step forward, yet it's clear that we're still in the early stages. The league is trying to get it right, but until that happens, teams like the Buffalo Bills will continue to face the frustration of decisions made based on what could essentially be called "eyeball justice."
Last March, NFL chief football administrative officer Dawn Aponte told Joe Lemire of Sports Business Journal that the league has been working on a camera-based system that could change the game—literally.
The system is designed not just for the line to gain, but for a variety of other calls, like determining forward vs. backward passes or even spotting punts that cross the sideline. The promise of this technology is tantalizing, but Florio is right to remind us that we're still waiting on it to become the norm.
Aponte confirmed that the line to gain feature is the one closest to being implemented, though. The league is testing the system, gathering data, and refining it. "The way we test it is that we have all the actual data that will then support what we're getting from the optical tracking data that's being brought in," Aponte said. That sounds like a step in the right direction, but until it's fully in place, the NFL will continue to be at the mercy of what appears to be inconsistent human judgment on the field.
For now, it's a wait-and-see game, but the bottom line is this: it's time for the NFL to figure out a solution that doesn't leave critical decisions hanging on the vagaries of the human eye. It's past time.