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The effort to keep football players healthy is surely open to technological advancements, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are taking things to a level previously unseen.
Experimenting with a new technology has us thinking differently when we hear “MVP.”
🎥 | https://t.co/hAsTxd8xFxhttps://t.co/4RXpKN3r1S
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) May 19, 2016
The robotic tackling dummies were developed at Dartmouth College and are named Mobile Virtual Player(s), or “MVP” for short. The remote-controlled units are expected to reduce the risk of injury for players, including of course head trauma, and a coach or teammate would obviously tire while a robot would not.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin offered some comments via the team’s website.
“The applications we are quickly finding are endless. It never gets tired. It runs at an appropriate football speed. All of the position groups are getting an opportunity to use it. It’s funny, you just put it on the field and watch the guys and they show you the applications. It’s been fun watching that. … I imagine it’s a great tool from a tackling tech standpoint. In today’s NFL, with player safety the focus that it is, I think it’s going to provide opportunities to improve in that area without the hand to hand or man to man combat associated with that teaching.”
With public focus on the physical toll football players absorb, it may only be a matter of time before robotic tackling dummies are on the practice fields of all 32 NFL teams.
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