The Innovative Truth of Modern Sports
STAFF WRITER BRYAN ALBARRAN
As the world becomes more innovative, it is no surprise that technology continues to improve the quality of sports. From an athlete’s health to the accuracy of a game, institutionalists have been constantly designing innovations to help athletes worldwide, which can be clearly seen when examining the sport of football. As people become more accustomed to letting technology take over, many forget that their own senses help more.
The constant fear of brain injuries have motivated the rise of many inventions that reduce the risk of concussions. Brain injuries in football are very common among athletes, even with the multiple pieces of equipment. According to SportTechie, a newly designed neck collar called the Q-collar has improved the injury sustained for players by compressing the head to increase blood flow to the head. A handful of athletes have began to use the Q-Collar. Players such as Luke Kuechly, a linebacker for the Carolina Panthers, is expected to report the success of the new equipment by the end of the season. As shown, the improvement of an athlete’s health has proven to become more important to sport officials.
In the highest levels of soccer games, goal-line technology has been used since 2012 to help mark goals. In high standard competitions, such as the World Cup, goal-line technology has been used to count goals that may be deemed as misses from the human eye. Since its first use, the technology has not faced many problems but for some teams, the electronics have cost them their games. In the recent game between Caen and Rennes, a shot was blocked by the goalie along the goal line and did not cross the line. According to the goal-line tech and reports from FOX Sports, the shot was marked as a goal. After a heated argument between referees and coaches, the referees focused on the visual facts and called off the goal. Innovations like the tech used in soccer may improve the accuracy of a game but their flaws may hinder a team’s success.
In another case, the intelligence of robots may be underestimated and overrule the common sense of a referee. In another soccer game within the Netherlands league, an ordinary play was marked as a foul. As the game officials used a drone to watch the game overhead, the footage of the foul made it seem like a goalie purposely tripped a player. While from the eyes of many fans and phone recordings, the goalie obviously went for the ball and accidentally tripped the player. Ignoring the multiple opinions of spectators, the referees called the play a foul and handed the opposing team a penalty. In cases where tech is being used for the improvement of game analyzation, it is best to stick with our own inferences.
The positive and negative effects of electronics in sports differ depending on what problem is being improved. Even though computers can calculate a mathematical problem faster than a human can, it is sometimes better to rely on human instincts. Technology should be applied to sports but only for the betterment of health and on the behalf of accuracy and precision, the calls should be left to the normal human referees.