NFL Player Helps Launch Zebra Campaign to Tell the Story of Their Technology

Published: November 27, 2024
  • The company’s “Measuring Greatness” campaign started this season with TJ Tampa of the Baltimore Ravens
  • The rookie from Iowa State is using the technology to gauge his recovery from an ankle injury and track his performance gains

Among the various constituents of the NFL ecosystem, many are putting the ultra-wideband (UWB) and RFID location-based technology from Zebra to use. The technology company that makes the MotionWorks UWB solution as well as passive UHF RAIN RFID inventory tracking is now going to individuals and companies asking them to put the technology to the test and report on the benefits or challenges on a personal level.

First up on the individual level is TJ Tampa, an NFL rookie cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens. Currently sidelined with an ankle injury, once he returns to the field he will be tracking data from each game.

Zebra’s new initiative—known as Measuring Greatness —is aimed at telling the story of how the technology helps boost performance for athletes on the field as well as how it affects the various professionals in the industry, such as merchandise vendors and broadcasters.

TJ Tampa Measures Progress Entering the Pros

Tampa, a former defensive back for Iowa State, was drafted by the Ravens in the fourth round this past year. He volunteered to report his experience with the UWB technology to help him measure his progress from early in his professional career.

“The data that Zebra collects during games is valuable because it helps add context to what myself, my coaches and my teammates are seeing on film each week,” he said. “I’m in my rookie season, so this is my first experience with this type of information. Even though the stats are new to me, I can see why they’re such a valuable resource for the NFL, teams, players, coaches and even fans.”

Tampa also pointed out a coolness factor—”I get to see how fast I ran or how far I traveled during the course of a play or game.”

Tampa’s Family History with the Technology 

Tampa is not new to IoT technology from Zebra. “My dad used Zebra scanners to track inventory at his previous job,” he said. Since then, the younger Tampa has learned more about the ways the technology helps digitize and automate workflows.

He’s had limited exposure to the MotionWork technology yet this season, but will continue to use and evaluate it going forward. “I think the stats that come from Zebra’s tracking technology help tell the full story about what’s happening on the football field—especially for fans who are watching games at home,” Tampa said.

And he noted that the data is interesting not only related to his own performance, but that of others.

“I’m surprised every week by the amazing performances by players around the league. For example, my teammate Derrick Henry has three of the top 20 fastest speeds by a ball carrier this year. That’s impressive for a guy of his stature!,” said the rookie—at about his 6 feet 2 inches and 247 pounds Henry is larger than most running backs, with a frame comparable to a linebacker.

Telling a Variety of Stories

The Measuring Greatness program tracks multiple individuals that are part of NFL football in one way or another, starting with Tampa, but including other users of Zebra technology, stated Amy Sullivan, Zebra’s North America and sports marketing lead. For instance, sports retailer Fanatics, uses Zebra’s RFID technology for inventory management and point of sale automation at its Jacksonville store in the EverBank Stadium.

For the past 10 years, Zebra Technologies has been the official real-time location solutions provider for the NFL, powering the league’s NextGen Stats platform. Through the partnership, Zebra tracks every ball and player on every team, for every game, every week of the NFL season, Sullivan said.

Zebra attaches UWB RFID tags to players’ shoulder pads that transmit real-time location data to a series of receivers around a practice facility or stadium to gather performance metrics such as speed, distance traveled, orientation and acceleration. Specialized RFID-tagged footballs capture passing and kicking information data, including velocity, rotation, distance and height. This information is then utilized by the NFL to calculate vast amounts of information, commonly known as Next Gen Stats.

“Zebra didn’t directly create the stats—they just capture the data that’s used to derive them,” Sullivan explained.

NFL Partnership

The Zebra MotionWorks Sport solution is deployed at every NFL stadium, in addition to sports venues around the world where the NFL has hosted international games in recent years—London, Mexico City and Munich. Zebra has team partnerships with more than one-third of NFL clubs through which it provides the MotionWorks Sport solution to track player performance during practices.

For teams that participate in the MotionWorks solution, the technology delivers live data while practice is happening while post-practice data provides valuable information for player analysis. Additionally, teams use practice data to guide their health and safety efforts for players, such as preventing injuries, managing workloads and informing return-from-injury decisions.

Zebra started its partnership with the NFL ten years ago, said Sullivan, “and we’ve noticed over the course of the time that we’ve been partners that there’s so many storylines that are unique and interesting, both on and off the field.”

Getting Personal

Measuring Greatness is a campaign that highlights these technologies from a personal perspective: from the individual on the field using player tracking to improve their own performance, to broadcasters, vendors and football fans.

“It is, in essence, a campaign of stories of those using the MotionWorks system,” said Sullivan.

For real-time performance statistics, an NFL player could be wearing up to three tags to measure speed, velocity and other data used for NextGen Stats. Zebra provides passive RFID tags on the equipment itself, and that data can help decision making about equipment, its usage, and what pieces of equipment are best for safety purposes for the player.

Fanatics Inventory Management and Sales

There are other stories that could become part of the program, Sullivan said, like that of Fanatics—a sports apparel company—tracking how the system measures greatness in their stores from a store manager’s perspective.

The stores use passive UHF RFID technology from Zebra to optimize checkout processes and improve inventory management. With RFID implementation, Fanatics achieved faster checkouts and reduced the need for staff at the point of sale, according to Sullivan.

Plus, company officials told Zebra it has streamlined operations and enhanced the fan experience. Inventory counts are now completed within an hour, rather than the previous six to eight hours needed in manual inventory counts. That, Sullivan said, has enabled more frequent checks and reduced discrepancies.

Tracking Stories Through the Season

While Tampa’s will be “one of the stories that we’re starting with, we’ll add more to it as the season goes on,” Sullivan said.

“The question that we’re asking everyone—and they each have a different answer—is how do you measure greatness and what does it mean to you?” she stated. “A player is going to have a different response than a company but we all have goals and we all have a feeling of what could I do better if I had the information at my fingertips.”

Next could be an equipment manager, or an NFL commentator that uses data to help tell the stories of what’s happening on the field.

“We’ll continue to look for more of those storylines like that,” Sullivan said.

Zebra is taking a hands-off approach when it comes to individual stories. “We’re not coaching TJ on what to do, [with the data] he’s fully capable of knowing—and he’s got coaches for that—we’re just helping give him data points so that he can use them to his advantage,” Sullivan said.

“As an NFL rookie, I want to take advantage of every resource and opportunity so I’m in the best position to succeed,” Tampa said. “I look forward to continuing to review the data this season to see how it can help me further improve my game.”

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About the Author: Claire Swedberg