The Future is Here Now
Aug 7, 2010
A very quiet news announcement hit the wires this past week that could have major repercussions for active players in upcoming contract negotiations. First, here’s the headline and a clip from the original release on Reuters:
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NFL in discussions about using chip-in-ball technology
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Tue Aug 3, 2010
By Patrick Johnston
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SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The National Football League (NFL) are in discussions about employing chip-in-ball technology to help rule on contentious touchdown and first down calls, German manufacturer Cairos Technologies has told Reuters.
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“Yes, we are talking. There is a demand in American Football,” Cairos sales director Mario Hanus told Reuters in a recent interview on the sidelines of the Soccerex Asian forum in Singapore.
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The NFL would not deny or confirm the talks. However, a spokesman for the league said on Tuesday that they are looking at expanding their use of technology.
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Read the rest of the article – click HERE.
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While this technology might seem rather simple and useful in helping resolve calls, it could easily be a harbinger of things to come. First, here’s a short clip on how technology was used to generate most of the incredible animation from the Academy Award-winning film from director James Cameron, AVATAR:
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Last year, a group of 2,000+ retired players won a class action lawsuit against the NFLPA/Players Inc. for using their likenesses and stats without compensation; and this was done AFTER players had signed Group Licensing Agreements (GLAs) that their own Union had been collecting for years. The suit was won in federal court last year and subsequently settled by incoming NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith for $26 million. The first checks were mailed out earlier this year and those players who were included in the suit are now anxiously awaiting their second checks that were expected at the end of July. Not all of the retired players were included in that earlier suit and only a 5-year window of GLAs was covered. Even more interesting is the fact that the NFLPA and its licensing arm, Players Inc. has no longer pursued further GLAs since the trial and Electronic Arts, the exclusive developer of Madden Football has publicly declared for the record that they would no longer use players’ likenesses in any future games. This would be no different than the idea of EA using space aliens to replace actual players. Those simulated games depend on the real-world lineups of each and every team to work and have value to the millions of video gamers everywhere.
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Another lawsuit has recently been filed in California by Tony Davis on behalf of over 6,000 players against Electronic Arts while Jim Brown has filed an appeal on his own against EA for using players images and stats without compensation. And a separate suit filed by retired player Bob Stein (Chiefs, Rams, Chargers, Vikings) and the firm of Zimmerman & Reed is moving forward against the NFL for not compensating the retired players for re-issued videos of classic games. This all seems to be SOP – Standard Operating Procedure – over the years of business in the NFL.
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With the concept of chip-in-the-ball, it might not be long before the League considers uniforms equipped with motion tracking sensors so every player’s movements can literally be saved and downloaded from the entire game. Sure makes it easier to program directly into any video game. Shouldn’t the players be compensated for being part of a virtual game? Perhaps something to at least be discussed during these current CBA discussions? Based on their past performance, perhaps current players and their agents need to be covering their own backs on this issue.
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To elaborate, let’s consider a few things that are established already when it comes to rights and ownership. Take the very popular video game, Rock Band, from Harmonix Music Systems. Like Madden Football, they’ve become a best-selling video game franchise played on multiple platforms like Sony and Nintendo. You can select from a wide range of songs and bands to play with and royalties and agreements are in place to ensure that everyone gets properly compensated. A while back, two of the best-known bands - the Beatles and Led Zeppelin – decided to opt out and so their likenesses and songs weren’t included. Just imagine if Harmonix had decided to do a little side deal and simply changed the band members slightly so they didn’t quite resemble lead singer Robert Plant or lead guitarist Jimmy Page exactly? Ya think Led Zeppelin wouldn’t have gone ahead and slapped them with a multimillion dollar lawsuit? Or the record label wouldn’t have gone after them for including their songs without paying a licensing fee? A case might even be made for identity theft. But in the NFL, it would seem that they just change your number and voilá – you’re not you anymore. EA even had the audacity to leave black players black and white players white, leaving little to question as to who that player really could be based on their stats. It wouldn’t seem that there should be any basis – legal or otherwise – for a double standard from one platform to the next. If you use that player, you pay them. Period.
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With new technology coming every day, all players – active AND retired – need to take a quick lesson from history: Don’t trust anyone else to cover your best interests. That chip-in-the-ball may just be a Trojan Horse for things to come…
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Related Posts
Posted by
RobertinSeattle |
Categories:
News | Tagged:
animation,
AVATAR,
Cairos Technologies,
Dave Pear,
Do No Evil,
Electronic Arts,
GLA,
Group Licensing Agreements,
Harmonix Music Systems,
James Cameron,
Led Zeppelin,
Madden Football,
NFL,
NFLPA,
NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith,
RobertinSeattle,
The Beatles,
Tony Davis |
Dave Pear
August 8th, 2010 at 11:38 am #
This will be just another opportunity for the NFLPA Leadership, NFL and EA sports to steal every movement and image of every NFL player on the football field during any game!
This may be the identity theft of the future (that is here now)!
Players and their agents need to be pro-active about this today. And just remember we warned you about it.
Remember Gene Upshaw comparing retired players’ images to “dog food” that he helped to steal for 14 years by scrambling and using them in the “Madden Video” games?
Everyone involved in this swindle was paid except the swindled retired players who are still waiting on their second payment of restitution for this thievery perpetrated against us by our own Union, the NFLPA.
Regards,
Dave & Heidi Pear
RobertinSeattle
August 8th, 2010 at 4:30 pm #
Oh – I forgot to mention that it’s been widely reported Big John Madden has received upwards of $130 million for having his name on the Madden Football video game from Electronic Arts. $130 million?!! If Madden had insisted on leaving half that money on the table for the players (because he’s supposed to be such a great guy!), they would have had $65 million to share. When you consider that around 2,000 players split up $26 million from the Players Inc. GLA lawsuit and still received anywhere from $2,000 – $10,000 apiece, $65 million would have gone a long way. And Madden probably paid close to that in taxes on that $130 million anyway so he certainly wouldn’t have noticed it at all. Unless he’s been sending his millions offshore to the same place those NFL owners have been sheltering their money all these year. Naahhhh!
Gordon A. Wright
August 8th, 2010 at 5:16 pm #
Dave,
I like your blog – it’s very helpful.
Could you post the names of all the Board Members on the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle Pension/Disability Board on your blog? I logged time in the NFL 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970, and have also been a dues-paying member of the NFLPA.
Here are some comments I posted to a Corporate Responsibility Magazine story about Mike Ditka:
“I played 1967, 68 for the Philadelphia Eagles & 1969 & 1970 for the New York Jets. I guarded Joe Namath as an offensive guard. We were the 1969 Eastern Conference Winners. I am now 64 years old and I am totally disabled and at home every day with my wife and family. I do not want charity. All I want is to be paid for the 1968 season or receive my pension. Every time I ask for my pension or to be paid for the 1968 Season, the NFLPA lawyers write back to tell me I am not eligible for the 1968 Season because I did not play the full year. Or I was not paid so I am not eligible for the 1968 Season or my pension. They say I only played three years. In 2002, Philadelphia Eagles team doctor James Nixon sent my medical records to my mother and my wife showing I was injured and put on injured reserve for the 1968 season. My wife and mother wrote the NFLPA on my behalf and sent my medical records from the 1968 team doctor, but even the NFLPA has continued to deny me my benefits. I was recently denied again in August of 2007.”
Read the entire article from 2008 by clicking HERE.
Thanks
Gordon Wright
Philadelphia Eagles & New York Jets
1967 – 1970
Cody C. Jones
August 8th, 2010 at 7:55 pm #
Gordon and family,
I am sorry and surprised to hear of your present situation. The one question I have is, doesn’t being on injured reserve afford you an accredited season?
You and many others know that the NFLPA appear to be a bunch of cowards. Someone from the NFLPA should have called personally to answer your questions. I don’t think anybody in the whole organization has a conscience from top to bottom. But that’s nothing new given how they have treated players in the past. You would think that some of these sport personalities would shine the spotlight on a situation like yours.
Cody C. Jones
Los Angeles Rams
1974 – 1982
RobertinSeattle
August 10th, 2010 at 4:13 pm #
Gordon -
You can read more about the current Disability Board on an earlier post - just click HERE to read it.
There are supposed to be 6 members on the Board according to the Plan documents – latest version is posted on the blog HERE. Three are supposed to represent the players and three are selected by the owners to represent the League. Gene Upshaw’s BFF Tom Condon was one of the retired players and only recently “retired” from the Board only to be replaced by Robert Smith who hasn’t endeared himself to most of the other retired players (your can read and hear Kyle Turley’s direct comments to him on that first post). The other two retired players are currently Jeff Van Note and Dave Duerson. Van Note still works for the NFL as an announcer in Atlanta (a clear conflict of interest if we ever saw one) and Duerson had to bankrupt his business while also fighting charges of beating his wife. And those are just the guys who are supposed to be representing YOU guys.
On the owners’ side of the table (actually it seems they all sit on the same side of the table based on the way they seem to always vote AGAINST most retired players’ disability applications as directed by Mary-Ann Fleming, the Director of the Plan), Bill Bidwell usually has a seat or a representative sitting in for him. He’s the Board member who once said that some of these players “should sit on the street corner selling pencils!”
It always seems that this Board manages to vote unanimously for or against most applications (mostly against) and there’s seldom any dissent. Otherwise they’d have to remind Commissioner Roger Goodell that he’s actually the Chairman of the Disability Board (Harold Henderson generally sits in for the Chairman). Goodell was asked at one of his public meetings a couple of years ago if he knew who was the Chairman of the Disability Board and he had to be politely reminded…
These members are NOT elected and there certainly don’t appear to be any type of term limits, accountability or transparency.
Gordon A. Wright
August 11th, 2010 at 5:54 am #
Thanks, Dave and Heidi Pear, for shining a spotlight on my quest for Justice!
Hi, Cody C. Jones – Thanks for your comment, I am the past and the foundation who paid $50.00/yr. Union dues! We were California Dreamers.
Gordon Wright
Philadelphia Eagles & New York Jets
1967 – 1970