The Buffalo Bills will be looking to look forward this coming offseason, rather than reflect on another brutal, controversy-laden end to the season.
Yet, the Bills will not forget in any hurry their first-down-that-wasn’t in the fourth quarter of this year’s AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead, which even rival players described as a robbery.
Not once, but twice in consecutive plays the Bills were denied what seemed to be the clear reaching of a first down on 3rd and 4th down plays, forcing them to punt with around 13 minutes left in the game, massively swinging the game’s momentum towards the Chiefs at a critical period.
In the aftermath of the Bills/Chiefs controversy, calls came from fans and media members alike to scrap the old-fashioned system of referee spots and the “chain gang” in exchange for a more precise measuring tool to calculate 1st downs.
As such, the NFL announced that they were “considering” moving to an electronic system in early February, a few days after the championship game – and it seems that they have now made a final decision.
Breaking: The NFL says its plan is to put its electronic system to measure first downs into motion this upcoming regular season in 2025.
The chain crew would remain on sideline as backup.
But this is finally happening. pic.twitter.com/PevSCuo7Nm
â Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) February 26, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
NFL Moving To “Electronic” 1st Down Measurement
According to Ari Meirov, the NFL will move immediately towards having an electronic system in place to measure first downs, whilst the crew managing the chains will stay in place as backup; something that one imagines will eventually be phased out if the system runs without any major issues for the first year or so.
Camera technology is currently installed at every stadium in the league, and given that the move is a procedural one rather than a full rule change, league officials at the NFL combine noted that owners do not need to vote to pass this measure.
During the pre-season, the NFL experimented with electronically spotted first downs, but decided against moving ahead with it up until the drama that unfolded last month.
And the electronic system will not deduce in and of itself the exact position of the ball, rather the sideline officials will spot the ball, and then the spot will be determined electronically as to whether it constitutes a first down using a “Hawk-eye” system, similar to the one used in major tennis tournaments.
Bills Vindication Is Too Little, Too Late
Whilst Buffalo and their fans will be happy to see this change finally be put into place, many in the Bills Mafia will question why this was not put into place earlier, given the previous experimentation with the same exact technology.
A change that could have changed the course of the playoffs; alas the NFL brass was not desirous to implement an expensive, new, semi-experimental procedure right away, rather choosing instead to wait to carry out the modification until it became a hot-button topic around the league.
In one small silver lining, the Bills get their vindication of a “robbery” of sorts, after the league basically admitted to messing up big-time at a critical moment. But it’s still too little, too late for Buffalo, who have to lick their wounds and get ready for another season in which they look to finally get over their Patrick Mahomes-shaped hump.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Bills Vindicated Over AFC Championship “Robbery” After Big-Time NFL Policy Shift appeared first on Heavy Sports.