It was only a matter of time before professional sports got into the virtual reality game. Last week, for example, the NBA along with Turner Sports and NextVR broadcast the opening night game between the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans in VR.

But what if you could use the technology to do more than just give fans a 3D game experience from home? Imagine if you could show fans what it's like to be sitting on the bench next to their favorite players listening to the coach give a pre-game speech, or give a fan the perspective of a running back as he breaks off a 50-yard touchdown run. The most interesting question of all (for NFL teams at least): what if we could use VR to win more games? That question plays a big part in NFL Next, an eight-episode video series that takes a look at the future of professional football, from computer chips in shoulder pads to drone use to virtual practices for players.

The obvious implementation for virtual reality in the NFL is ticket sales. If the league could sell $10 virtual tickets to the Super Bowl to even a fraction of the 115 million viewers who watch the big game, it would make a killing. Of course, this assumes that people own VR headsets, which... we don't yet.

The more nuanced application of VR, and perhaps the more valuable one in the long run, is supplementing practice for players. As NFL Next points out, Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan saw a significant improvement in on-the-field performance after he started training with VR for the last three games of the 2014 season.

The NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers are taking it a step further, partnering with Eon Sports VR to use digital simulation software to virtually test an upcoming opponent's defensive formations against offensive plays. The Tampa Bay offensive players then receive updates to their phones with examples of various play match-ups.

In another application of VR, the Minnesota Vikings' quarterback coach sees everything that quarterback Teddy Bridgewater looks at, allowing him to walk the young QB through the proper reads and point out any mistakes, even if they wouldn't be evident from the result of the play. More than a dozen NFL teams are currently using some form of VR to supplement practices.

You have to wonder what professional athletes will look like in the coming decades, trained by repetitive VR scenarios to the point of muscle memory reactions to almost every situation. You can watch episodes of NFL Next on NFL.com.

Source: Tech Times

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