The Future of Sports

Social Media and Statistics

When thinking about the future of sports, I don't want to think about robots and outlandish possibilities.  I want to look at the trends that are starting today and where they will head in the future. One of the biggest things to happen in society over the past several years has been the prominence of social media. We are such a connected society with the ability to communicate with everyone around us. We can now directly contact athletes with a chance that they'll reply to us. 

Where is this going to go in the future? I think eventually a league will incorporate this into games. All of the networks already have it integrated where they will show tweets or trending topics during games. Soon a league that has some struggles will decide it's time to have social media utilized within the game. I'm not sure exactly how they'll do it, but I see a day where a player scores a touchdown and his celebration is tweeting 140 characters at a computer set up in the back of the end zone. I don't think football will be the first one to do it, but I could see that happening one day. 

Along with the technological advancements of communication through social media is the advancement of statistical analysis collected. 

We now have graphs and stats that focus on every single possession in a baseball game. Sabre Metrics in baseball have completely changed how many teams operate. New ratings for QBs in the NFL are being created. This trend is only going to continue. Eventually I see the leagues embracing this even more than they do right now. I see some type of micro-processor being placed inside a football to calculate the speeds more accurately that a QB throws, and calculate how soft a receivers hands are. 

Technology allows a wealth of knowledge and data to be collected through many means. In a couple years we're going to be able to look at individual statistics for players in every environment possible. There are already projections that can be done to predict the tendencies of athletes in certain situations. The advancement of technology is only going to further this along.

Safety First

Over the past several months, a few football players have spoken up and said that football won't exist in 20 or 30 years. First it was the Baltimore Ravens Bernard Pollard, and last week it was Detroit Lions Hall of Famer Lem Barney. 

The reasoning is that football is too violent of a sport and eventually nobody will want to play it because of the possibility of head injuries that linger after your career has ended. Well, since I just spent several paragraphs talking about technology, i'll once again offer it up as the solution.

I was raised watching NASCAR. I don't follow it as closely as I used to, but when I was about 10 years old in 2001 and Dale Earnhardt died, the sport changed forever. Along with the death of Earnhardt were several other serious injuries and deaths in racing that called for a change.

This caused NASCAR to make a complete revamp of its safety precautions and changed the way the sport operated. Every component on the car was improved and made safer. The walls around the tracks were changed from extremely hard concrete barriers to safer walls that had some flexibility and give to absorb blows. Restraints were required by NASCAR to ensure higher safety for all drivers, and the sport has survived because of this.

If the money is there, and the money was there for NASCAR, so it's surely there for the NFL, then changes can be made to make the game safer. I don't think we'll see a day where all of the players are in giant robotic suits playing, but I do see safer helmets, pads, and neck supports being created. 

I can see the number of transcendent talents in the NFL dropping over the next few years while these changes are made but I don't see the sport in any real danger. If the NFL wants to be serious about protecting its players, then it will make the necessary changes to get the league to a place where safety is secured. 

It might take a couple years to get the NFL to that place, but it can be done. That doesn't mean there will never be another concussion in the sport, but there will be less. We won't have the days of Junior Seau killing himself because of the head injuries he sustained playing the sport. Hopefully we will see the day where science comes through with a solution for the NFL to prevent those type of injuries from happening again. 

I'll See You in the Future

I wanted to touch on those two important points. Now, I want to give a broader view of where I see sports in 20, 30 and even 50 years. I think it only gets better for the sports fan. There will be more ways to interact with your favorite athlete, team, or league. We will have more access to sports. There will be more data available, and more opportunity to be a part of the sport.

Some sports won't be as popular as they are today. Some sports will be even more popular. If I had to make some bets, I would say that soccer will have a bigger place in America and MLS will be bigger than MLB. 

Football will have gone through a transcendent period where safety changes have made the game better. We just have to hope that we don't see a talent strike because of the people pointing out the issues with safety in football today. If I had a young son that wanted to play football, i'd probably steer him toward another sport.

I think hockey will also have some major changes to improve safety and attempt to give us a better game. I think there will be other sports that grow in popularity because of the ease of access to spread a message to the world. Remember when the World Series of Poker was big? I could see a few smaller sports take a center stage for a few years in the future like poker did.

Either way, I know I will be tuned in to see what changes come to the world of sports over the next 20 years and beyond. I hope you will keep the same love of sports you have today in the future and embrace change. 

Thanks for reading today! I'll be back next week with four new blog posts. Now that the NBA is over, it's time to start focusing on football, baseball playoffs and more. 

- Tim