A Super Bowl Koan: Does The NFL Wish It Were A Tech Company? (siliconvalley.com)

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A Super Bowl Koan: Does The NFL Wish It Were A Tech Company? (siliconvalley.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday February 5, 2017 @01:04PM from the media-meditations dept.

Are tech companies cashing in on the popularity of Super Bowl -- or is the Super Bowl trying to get into the world of tech? An anonymous reader writes: The NFL hosted a startup pitch competition before the game. And they also ran tech-themed "future of football" ads during the game which showcased the robot tackling dummies that provide moving targets for training players. Lady Gaga's halftime show is even expected to feature hundreds of drones.

But Microsoft was also hovering around outside the stadium, pushing the concept of "social autographs" (digital signatures drawn onto images) with their Surface tablets. Intel ran ads during the game touting their 360-degree replay technology. Besides the usual game-day ads for beer, there were also several for videogames -- Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Mobile Strike, and a reality TV show parody suddenly turned into an ad for World of Tanks. So is technology subtly changing the culture of the Super Bowl -- or is the Super Bowl turning into a massive pageant of technology?
Are any Slashdot readers even watching the Super Bowl? All I know is the Bay Area Newsgroup reported that a Silicon Valley engineer ultimately earns more over their lifetime than the average NFL football player.

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Social Autographs by fibonacci8 · 2017-02-05 13:06 · Score: 2

I know it's photoshopped, but is it a genuine photoshop? And how much is it worth?

--
Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
DRMed? by Kunedog · 2017-02-05 13:29 · Score: 1

I was thinking more like "impossible to print or save as a jpeg" from the locked-down Surface app, but "You can order prints starting at $4.99 (PS filters and effects available for a small extra fee)!"
Re:Wicca = Satan by moosehooey · 2017-02-05 13:32 · Score: 2

You need a good swift kick in the head, you do...
Re:Does someone get to play football? by TWX · 2017-02-05 13:32 · Score: 2

With the fawning over the players so many of the guys at work do, yes, it is necessary.

What I really don't get is fans of out-of-state teams referring to their team as, "we," as if they have some connection with the team other than buying their merchandise and rooting for their success.

--
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
smoke and mirrors by TWX · 2017-02-05 13:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

The teams and the league are there to make money. As such they'll apply whatever trappings they think will bring more fans and thus more money to the sport.

Right now tech is hot, tech is popular. It doesn't matter why it's hot or popular, if they can find a way to cobble it in for greater profit then they will do so. The game itself has not changed significantly for a very long time, the only tech required has been safety equipment to attempt to reduce injuries.

--
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
1. Re:smoke and mirrors by TWX · 2017-02-05 14:00 · Score: 2
  
  Huh?
  
  I said tech is popular. I didn't say that tech work is popular. Using tech is what's popular, but only where the use of that tech is easy, where it's a marvel, kind of like previous marvels. Those using it often have no clue why it actually works.
  
  Consider historical examples. Cars are popular. Cars have been around for the masses for about a hundred years now. The average driver doesn't know how an engine or a transmission really works at a fundamental level, they only know that when they step on the accelerator pedal the car moves forward. The telephone is popular. The average telephone user doesn't understand how trunk lines work or the line voltages for talk and ring on the average phone, or how a telephone exchange works, they only care that when they pick up the handset, there's a dial-tone and they can make a call. Television is popular. The average viewer doesn't understand how originally TV was allocated spectrum and individual channels were assigned short ranges of about 7MHz wide, or how color was cobbled-in to a previous black-and-white signal, or what the switchover from analog to digital meant and how it was cobbled in to that ~7MHz wide piece of spectrum. They simply know that when they turn on the TV, there's something to watch.
  
  The tech work to make cars move, to make telephone calls, to make television, is hard, and is subject to change. The use of these technologies does not require a lot of change on the part of the user. Arguably the basic functions for driving cars has been about the same since the invention of the electric starter motor. For landline phones the function hasn't changed since the touch-tone phone was rolled-out in the sixties, and even cell phones mimicked this for a very long time before finally switching over to dial-then-submit model or to using extensive contact lists. TV hasn't really changed from the end-user perspective since the advent of the remote control, other than the mild blip when the subchannel appeared with HDTV.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
2. Re:smoke and mirrors by rtb61 · 2017-02-05 14:36 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The game has changed quite significantly. They have lost their main stream media lock in, the creation of the illusion of heroes and heroines. The reality of boring egoistic dumb douche bags, willing to do the same boring crap endlessly, is starting to leak through and the whole hero/heroine bullshit is dying. The era of 'I am not lying, I am acting' when it comes to unsportmens and unsportwomen marketing products is coming to an end. They are desperately trying to stay relevant, in a market, where they can no longer control the message and establish a gestalt that turns dumb idiots playing like children into heroes who sell product, whether consumables (alchohol, cigarettes), or politics or what ever they are trying to sell. They are in desperate to stay relevant mode and the market it shifting to, 'crap it was all marketing bullshit mode, all of it, heroes heroines, great achievement, managed public appearances, just all bullshit'.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
3. Re:smoke and mirrors by Cmdln+Daco · 2017-02-05 15:13 · Score: 1
  
  There are too many kinds of 'tech work' to really generalize on any particular kind.
  Most IT work is Data Janitor Drudgery.
  Most Technician work is just hands on craftsmanship.
4. Re:smoke and mirrors by TWX · 2017-02-05 16:54 · Score: 2
  
  You lost me at, "gestalt," and completely missed the point I was making.
  
  Football, the actual game played on the field measuring 360' by 160', with a 300' by 160' contested area, has not significantly changed. The act of the offense attempting to advance down the field against the defense attempting to stop them or better, force a turnover, is largely the same since the founding of the NFL. Undoubtedly a few rules have changed over the years and some equipment has been added or improved upon, but someone watching a 1917 collegiate or professional football game would recognize a 2017 collegiate or professional football game.
  
  Everything else, including virtually all of what you've brought up, are just trappings. Those trappings may be important to the marketing of the sport, but none of them are necessary for those 22 players on the field to attempt to advance or halt the advance of the ball. The addition of this electronics technology push is itself just trappings. Any and all of it could go away and you'll still have 22 players out on the field playing their parts.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
5. Re:smoke and mirrors by dbIII · 2017-02-05 19:13 · Score: 2
  
  Personally I'd rather see Janet Jackson's nipple for half an hour than most of those trappings.
6. Re: smoke and mirrors by Corbets · 2017-02-05 19:16 · Score: 1
  
  Did you call for the troll, or are you part of it?
7. Re:smoke and mirrors by umghhh · 2017-02-05 21:50 · Score: 1
  
  What about this: 'the trappings are necessary for the sport to exist'?
8. Re:smoke and mirrors by apoc.famine · 2017-02-06 02:59 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  You know you can, right? I mean, this is something totally within your control to make happen.
  
  --
  Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
9. Re:smoke and mirrors by nasch · 2017-02-06 05:46 · Score: 1
  
  The average telephone user doesn't understand how trunk lines work or the line voltages for talk and ring on the average phone, or how a telephone exchange works, they only care that when they pick up the handset, there's a dial-tone and they can make a call.
  
  I wonder how many people under about 18 or 20 even know what a dial tone is. Plenty of them have probably never had a home phone, or at least not when they were old enough to use it. Are dial tones in enough movies and TV that it would be familiar? I'll have to ask my kids.
Lifetime Earnings comparison by Guppy · 2017-02-05 13:43 · Score: 4, Interesting

All I know is the Bay Area Newsgroup reported that a Silicon Valley engineer ultimately earns more over their lifetime than the average NFL football player.
Reminds me of an article comparing a doctor's lifetime earnings vs a UPS driver. In the analysis, the doctor doesn't pull ahead until about 18 years after high school, due to the long period of schooling and residency, plus debt load.
http://www.er-doctor.com/docto...
1. Re:Lifetime Earnings comparison by BarbaraHudson · 2017-02-05 15:07 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, but they get to retire earlier.
  
  --
  "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
2. Re:Lifetime Earnings comparison by ranton · 2017-02-05 15:41 · Score: 1
  
  Reminds me of an article comparing a doctor's lifetime earnings vs a UPS driver. In the analysis, the doctor doesn't pull ahead until about 18 years after high school, due to the long period of schooling and residency, plus debt load.
  You make it sound like 18 years after high school is a long time. That is only 35-37 years old, or in other words only a little over a third of the way into your career.
  
  --
  -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
3. Re:Lifetime Earnings comparison by swb · 2017-02-05 23:52 · Score: 2
  
  But in the business side of medicine, a lot of doctors buy into medical groups and by the time they're in their 50s they are the senior people in their group culling more profit from the group's practice and working fewer, better hours and then often selling out their share of the practice to someone new.
  I have a friend who is an orthodontist and he started that way, and he then expanded the practice being the principal practitioner at a couple of new locations, which includes owning the buildings. He's 55 and I think if he sold his real estate holdings now he'd probably net more money than his future income from just orthodontics. Of course I think he will continue to work and either hold the lease on the real estate or sell the buildings when decides to retire.
  As for the NFL/SV comparison, that's kind of silly. The NFL players make all that money in less than 10 years and then quite often leverage their football careers in sales, coaching positions or if they were better than average at money and income, into owning car dealerships or other large businesses where they make money even beyond their NFL earnings.
  Of course there a lot of fools that blow it all on partying and large retinues of family and hangers on and wind up penniless.
4. Re:Lifetime Earnings comparison by Trailer+Trash · 2017-02-06 01:17 · Score: 2
  
  Reminds me of an article comparing a doctor's lifetime earnings vs a UPS driver. In the analysis, the doctor doesn't pull ahead until about 18 years after high school, due to the long period of schooling and residency, plus debt load.
  You make it sound like 18 years after high school is a long time. That is only 35-37 years old, or in other words only a little over a third of the way into your career.
  On the other hand, those comparisons never add in what would happen if you took the out of pocket money that would be paid to college and put it into an S&P 500 index fund between the ages of 18 and 22. My guess is the doctor wouldn't catch up until age 45 or later. I'm not talking about the med school money (the doctor would literally never catch up if I did), just the out of pocket cash for undergrad.
  
  --
  Do you have ESP?
For those of you not living in the USA by ukoda · 2017-02-05 13:44 · Score: 1, Funny

I was in the USA once when one of these Superbowl things was on so can tell you a wee bit about it. I think it is meant to be the top level of the sport but appears to be only USA based teams. They call the sport football but it is not in any way related to actual football. It appears to be safety focused version of rugby where they are wearing full body armor making the players look more like some mini-mecha from an anime. Not as entertaining as my description might lead you to believe, but this is compensated for by a live concert in the middle of the game and some quite watchable commercials.
1. Re:For those of you not living in the USA by sjritt00 · 2017-02-05 14:18 · Score: 1
  
  Why yes, indeed they do. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt20...
2. Re:For those of you not living in the USA by Notabadguy · 2017-02-05 14:38 · Score: 1
  
  As an American that played Rugby in college, I sympathize - seeing millions of Americans go ballistic over a watered down version of Rugby is sad.
3. Re:For those of you not living in the USA by ranton · 2017-02-05 15:46 · Score: 1
  
  They call the sport football but it is not in any way related to actual football.
  Football includes a family of vaguely similar sports, including Association Football (soccer), Gridiron Football (USA football), and Rugby Football (rugby). All of them can be rightfully called football, even though their rules vary greatly. There is no "actual" football.
  
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  -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
4. Re:For those of you not living in the USA by hambone142 · 2017-02-05 16:31 · Score: 2
  
  I have a lot more respect for rugby players than football players.
  I'd like to see football players stripped of all of their "protective clothing" instead of being a bunch of pussies.
  They may as well just drive bulldozers to get the job done if they want to be "safe".
  Rugby players are real men and don't need to wear all of the crap. The sport also doesn't have so much dead time (11 minutes of actual play time in an NFL game).
5. Re:For those of you not living in the USA by Obfiscator · 2017-02-07 00:42 · Score: 1
  
  I had always heard that rule and style of play differences allowed American football players to hit harder, thus resulting in a more violent sport.
  A little google searching found a 2016 study from the The American Journal of Sports Medicine on injuries in collegiate football and rugby in the US. The authors found, "Overall injury rates were substantially higher in collegiate rugby compared with football. Similarities between sports were observed in the most common injury types (sprains and concussions), locations (lower extremity and head), and mechanisms (direct player contact). Upper extremity injuries were more common in rugby, and the rate of season-ending injuries
  was similar between sports." (emphasis mine) So it looks like I was wrong, at least at the university level.
  Although rates were similar for concussions despite that American football players wear helmets to protect their head. So perhaps they do hit harder and/or at different angles? Either that or the helmets don't actually protect their heads.
  The authors note some studies in the introduction which indicate injury rates in professional football may be substantially higher.
  
  --
  "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." -Indiana Jones
Re:Does someone get to play football? by TWX · 2017-02-05 14:01 · Score: 1

It would probably be a more intelligent question to wonder why they use that word if they are not actually on the team.
That's what I said.

--
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Gaga Drones by dtmancom · 2017-02-05 14:06 · Score: 2

I WONDERED how they did that opener for the halftime show. I was wondering if I was seeing on-the-fly computer graphics. Drones makes sense.
1. Re:Gaga Drones by bickerdyke · 2017-02-05 21:50 · Score: 1
  
  The opposite of on-the-fly...
  Pre-recorded:
  http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/0...
  Superbowl halftime show is now on par with the chinese Olympic Opening Ceremony fireworks, that many people called "cheating"
  
  --
  bickerdyke
Atlanta is kicking the Patriots' collective butts by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2017-02-05 14:36 · Score: 1

Early in the fourth - all is right in the world.
But back on topic: Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLB-AM) has been extremely successful - that probably has the NFL drooling.

--
#DeleteChrome
Get in the sea by PopeRatzo · 2017-02-05 14:38 · Score: 3

Area Newsgroup reported that a Silicon Valley engineer ultimately earns more over their lifetime than the average NFL football player.
This is the stupidest thing I've seen on the Internet since 4pm.
The average career length of an NFL player is 3.3 years. The average career length of a Silicon Valley engineer will probably be closer to 40 years. Longer if they "reform" Social Security and add years to the retirement age.

--
You are welcome on my lawn.
Re:Let me say two things by Nunya666 · 2017-02-05 14:43 · Score: 2

and WTF is a koan?
From http://www.dictionary.com/brow...: a nonsensical or paradoxical question to a student for which an answer is demanded, the stress of meditation on the question often being illuminating.

The British definition is a little clearer: (in Zen Buddhism) a problem or riddle that admits no logical solution
Re:Wicca = Satan by BarbaraHudson · 2017-02-05 15:04 · Score: 1

He already had it - that's why the self-evident brain damage.

--
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Re:Wicca = Satan by BarbaraHudson · 2017-02-05 15:05 · Score: 1

All religions teach people to think uncritically.

--
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Re: Hobby Lobby by Cmdln+Daco · 2017-02-05 15:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

Trump is President.
President Trump. Say it out loud. What do we have to complain about?
Are there really any nazis in the US? There are a few thousand KKK idiots, but in 2017 that's like wanting to be an Astronaut when you grow up.
The worst thing anybody can do is take idiots who say they are nazis or kkk members seriously. That gives them credibility.
Re:tech is pop culture now by Cmdln+Daco · 2017-02-05 15:10 · Score: 2

The bully stopped picking on me when I broke the handle on my clarinet case hitting him with it.
Jockstraps can... well... whatever weird things they want to do in the locker room is okay with me.
Re:Football, the geek's arch enemy in high school? by Cmdln+Daco · 2017-02-05 15:18 · Score: 1

Comcast isn't tech. It's salesmen in mid-priced suits.
Re:Atlanta is kicking the Patriots' collective but by Cmdln+Daco · 2017-02-05 15:20 · Score: 1

Game is now in overtime. How will the Patriots cheat their way to a win?
Almost all are tech companies by Billly+Gates · 2017-02-05 15:47 · Score: 1

Back before it was considered an evil cost center, tech was once used as a tool and process engineering. You need internet, email, spreadsheets, databases, business intelligence, statistics, social media marketing, etc.
The newer companies GET IT. You want to sell more product? Don't do silly commercials. Go to facebook, twitter, and use analytics from these to find out what your customers want and to support fan driven sites. That is just one example.
The NFL gets it! THe dying companies do not and are reactive and view IT as plumbing and only spend money AFTER something fails.

--
http://saveie6.com/
Re:Atlanta is kicking the Patriots' collective but by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2017-02-05 15:51 · Score: 1

Well, obviously Russia got involved.
(I kid, I kid...)

--
#DeleteChrome
Re:Does someone get to play football? by hambone142 · 2017-02-05 16:27 · Score: 2

I googled how much actual "play time" is involved in a NFL game.
It's 11 minutes.
I see the Superbowl as nothing but a bunch of advertising, some shitty attempts at "entertainment" at half time and an excuse to get a bunch of people together to eat a shitload of food.
It is a good time to do some traveling though as the freeways aren't crowded during the game.
Sports? Really? by LostMyBeaver · 2017-02-05 16:40 · Score: 1

I sometimes watch the superbowl advertisements, but I can't honestly imagine ever being interested in watching a bunch of sweaty guys in spandex hugging on each other and trying to get each other on the ground. There are many websites for this and frankly, I'm glad people into that sort of thing have a place to watch it, but I'd far prefer to sit at a coffee shop and look at the pretty girls as they go by.

As for cheerleaders... holy shit... they all look like rednecks attacked by botox on hair spray.

I think that the Greeks and Romans had the right idea when they created organized sports to keep the stupid people preoccupied with something meaningless.
Re: Hobby Lobby by Anonymous Coward · 2017-02-05 16:59 · Score: 1

>The worst thing anybody can do is take idiots who say they are nazis or kkk members seriously. That gives them credibility.
Wasn't this what around six million Jews and others in Europe said about the Nazis?
Massive Pageant but not of technology by No+Longer+an+AC · 2017-02-05 18:23 · Score: 1

About a week ago I read something about the Super Bowl's "opening night" and I wondered if it was a football championship or a Broadway musical.
How can a football game have an "opening night"?
No doubt it was a big show, but as another poster points out there was only 11 minutes of playing time. Is that true? And the hype about the commercials and the half-time show is possibly even bigger than the action on the field.
I guess the NFL has done some cool things with technology....well, not the NFL but people who partnered with them (e.g. CMU experts helping CBS's 30 robotic cameras to work as one)
It looks like Intel has taken that a few steps further for this year's Super Bowl. I would hope anyway. That was 16 years ago.
But on other tech fronts, wasn't there an article in the last year on /. about the NFL's horrible experiences with their Surfaces? And didn't announcers keep referring to them as iPads?
And dammit, I just watched a brief news clip about the Super Bowl hoping to see some of this amazing new camera technology and the only pictures of the game were still images! I should have known better than to click on a Newsy link. CBS doesn't play well with whatever extensions I have on Chrome and Firefox so I had to pull up IE to watch their report...and watch a Bud Light commercial...And CBS didn't have anything but still images in their news clip either? WTF?
Didn't the game air on CBS? Was the camera technology cool? It seems they're making it difficult to see.
1. Re:Massive Pageant but not of technology by Gilgaron · 2017-02-06 01:23 · Score: 1
  
  All sports are like that to an extent. I think football's success is due to its frequent pauses between plays allowing for extra advertisements (which in turn fund the whole thing) and a mix of strategy and athleticism that translates well to TV. Basketball, for example, can go quite a while without a pause in the action, which is great in some respects, but makes it somewhat less social to watch because you will miss more if you turn away to converse with your friends. Baseball is a sport I enjoy watching in person but can't get into on TV. I think the reason its heyday was in the radio dominant media landscape is because it is easy to describe what is happening. Football is ok described on the radio, but basketball is too visual in my opinion. My opinions will be a little outside the norm, I don't actually enjoy pro-sports much... for some reason that the athletes are so beyond the pale of normal humans in skill makes it less interesting for me than college or minor league.
Quite the opposite I think by SuperKendall · 2017-02-05 18:50 · Score: 1

Tech is more popular yes. But that doesn't mean technical workers are any less in demand, because even if more people were actually drawn to tech work than before (are there?) the ones who just do it for the glory either make it hardly past the rigors of learning programming, or if they do perform so poorly on the job that all people who really enjoy technical work look like giants by comparison.

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Re: Hobby Lobby by dbIII · 2017-02-05 19:11 · Score: 2

Maybe read something like Jack London's "The Iron Heel" (free on Project Gutenberg) to see what a lot of people, including some very much on the "right" are worried about. You don't need a swastika to be dangerous.
Words Mean Things by Princeofcups · 2017-02-05 19:37 · Score: 1

A haiku is not a poem based on syllables. Karma is not what goes around comes around. And a koan is not a RANDOM FUCKING QUESTION.

--
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
Re:Does someone get to play football? by snakeplissken · 2017-02-05 20:47 · Score: 1

What I really don't get is fans of out-of-state teams referring to their team as, "we," as if they have some connection with the team other than buying their merchandise and rooting for their success.
as expressed here by mitchell and webb:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
snake
Re: Hobby Lobby by Bearhouse · 2017-02-06 00:02 · Score: 2

Rather off topic, but I heartily disagree. Liars and xenophobes should be called out on their toxic crap otherwise they might get elected president one day.
Oh wait....
Re: Hobby Lobby by Trailer+Trash · 2017-02-06 01:19 · Score: 2

Rather off topic, but I heartily disagree. Liars and xenophobes should be called out on their toxic crap otherwise they might get elected president one day.
A "xenophobe" who's married to a foreigner.
You folks have gone beyond self-parody at this point.
And "liar"? Ever heard "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor"?

--
Do you have ESP?
Re:a Silicon Valley engineer by moeinvt · 2017-02-06 01:41 · Score: 2

Did you know that the average career of an NFL player is only 3.3 years? Crazy, isn't it? For every multi-millon dollar superstar with a long successful career, there are many anonymous athletes who experience a career-ending injury in their first or second season. They must also be counting only what the football player made while playing football.
I can easily believe that the "average" engineer earns more over the course of an entire career.
Re:Does someone get to play football? by David_Hart · 2017-02-06 01:50 · Score: 2

I googled how much actual "play time" is involved in a NFL game.
It's 11 minutes.
I see the Superbowl as nothing but a bunch of advertising, some shitty attempts at "entertainment" at half time and an excuse to get a bunch of people together to eat a shitload of food.
It is a good time to do some traveling though as the freeways aren't crowded during the game.
And most video games can be played through in 30 minutes or less... what's your point? that you don't like Football (American Football)? Got it...
While there may be an average of 11 minutes of "play time", there is a lot going on beyond the actual physical play. Strategy, alignment, play calling, etc. takes up a bunch of time on field. For Football fans (American Football for our International friends) this is just as important as the actual physical play. Those who do not enjoy the game will see it as a waste of time.
I do agree that the Ads are over the top for the Superbowl, but that's how the NFL is so successful at generating money.
Re: Hobby Lobby by nasch · 2017-02-06 05:39 · Score: 1

You're right, Trump is honest, because somebody else said something that wasn't true.
Re: Hobby Lobby by Cmdln+Daco · 2017-02-06 17:31 · Score: 1

1. In Europe.
2. In 1939.
We have more serious threats to worry about. Nazis and the KKK are historical anachronisms. The people who participate in those 'movements' in 2017 are harmless and/or easily identified and neutralized.