How AI is helping the NFL improve player safety

From the initial kickoff at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, an artificial intelligence platform will be tracking every move on the field to help keep players safer.

Like many other professional sports leagues, the NFL has been at the leading edge of data-driven transformation for years. For example, in 2015 the league dramatically increased its data collection efforts by equipping all players with RFID sensors that pinpoint every player’s field position, speed, distance traveled, and acceleration in real-time. This season, the NFL has worked closely with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to debut a new joint effort: Digital Athlete.

Digital Athlete is a platform that leverages AI and machine learning (ML) to predict from plays and body positions which players are at the highest risk of injury. The platform draws data from the players’ RFID tags, 38 5K optical tracking cameras placed around the field capturing 60 frames per second, as well as other data such as weather, equipment, and play type to build a complete view of players’ experiences. One of those data sources is the Next Generation Stats System (NGS), which captures real-time location, speed, and acceleration data for every player.

During each week of games, Digital Athlete captures and processes 6.8 million video frames and documents about 100 million locations and positions of players on the field. During practices, it processes around 15,000 miles of player tracking data per week — translating to more than 500 million data points.

“We’re running millions of simulations on in-game scenarios to tell teams which players are at the highest risk of potential injury, and they use that information to develop individualized injury prevention courses,” says Julie Souza, global head of sports at AWS.

Souza has headed up the Sports practice at AWS for more than three years after stints as head of business development and strategy at both ESPN and Second Spectrum, a data tracking and analytics provider for the NBA and other sports leagues. Now she and her team at AWS are helping sports and entertainment organizations build data-driven solutions that encompass everything from fan engagement and venue management to game strategy, scouting, and rules development.