Wait... The NFL Has Had A Chip In The Football This Whole Time And Never Told Anybody?

Well color me shocked. Every time there's a weird play involving a goal line marker or a first down or anything of the sort, this has become the default response:

"It's (insert year here going back two fucking decades), why don't they just put a chip in the ball"

And it's an absolutely correct take. One of those things where the concept has permeated throughout the football world and it's almost become a running joke. Only the crotchetiest and oldest farts in middle America who have never heard of Twitter and pull the levers on their crusty recliners every Sunday think it's their original idea. It's really hard to find anything in this country that everyone can agree on and this just might be that one thing. There should be a gd chip in the ball and we should do away with chains.

But here I come to find thanks to a league-run social media account, that this has been going on right in front of my very eyes the entire time? What an absolutely ridiculous way for this to have surfaced. Or at least to me, and I think just about everyone else too. 

So I did some deep research (googled one search). According to a post by Yahoo in November 2021, the league has actually had a damn microchip in the ball dating back to... 2017! Over 5 years ago! Who knew! (I may very well just be the idiot who didn't know, but I am pretty damn confident I am not).

Thing is, we don't appear to even really be using it. Or at least not to its full potential. According to that article, apparently they can use it to spot out-of-bounds punts and that's about it. What a waste. NFL gonna NFL.

Glad I know just how close (not close at all!) Tyler Huntley came to the goal line on the biggest play of the year!