Light 'em up

[Statesman]

Just a crazy thought that might be fun to toss around --

What if players wore gear that lit up when contacted by other gear? Have a similar sensor placed in the ball, shoe, shinguard, and an arm sleeve with lights that activated when other gear makes contact.

It would certainly help referees in telling of somebody is diving... no light = no foul.

[Ref Flunkie]

Just a crazy thought that might be fun to toss around --

What if players wore gear that lit up when contacted by other gear? Have a similar sensor placed in the ball, shoe, shinguard, and an arm sleeve with lights that activated when other gear makes contact.

It would certainly help referees in telling of somebody is diving... no light = no foul.

I would think with today's semiconductor technology, we could incorporate it into clothing with little problem. Now would it stay on for a set period of time (2 seconds?) or would it need to be reset? How would we power it? Solar power or would they have to wear a battery pack? Can we put shock devices in as well to "punish" players if they are mouthing off? I see real potential here.

[DerbyRam54]

Built-in voice recognition so that the players in effect zap themselves when they use bad language. You'd have to have some sort of timeout on that though or they'd be zapping themselves continuously. "Oh f***!" ZAP! "Schitt that hurt" ZAP....
To hell with chips in the ball, this would be much more entertaining.

[bluedevils]

Interesting.

Have you ever called a tripping foul when the player made no contact with the opponent? To me, this is not called often enough. There are times when a player with the ball jumps to avoid being tripped. The opponent slides thru going for the ball and misses everything - ball and player. The attacker falls as he cannot keep his balance / footing. Too often, referees call nothing because they see no contact. But the offense is 'trips or attempts to trip' not just 'trips.'

I fear that in the relentless pursuit to stop awarding unearned FKs because of diving, we will completely stop calling the legitimate cases of tripping when no contact occurred. Or maybe we were never calling these anyway.

[ctsoccer13]

Interesting idea, but can you imagine the expense. Clothing and equipment gets more expensive every year, I can't even imagine what it would cost with this addition. Plus, contact doesn't equal a foul. Shoulder to shoulder contact happens constantly. On the plus side, you probably wouldn't need to buy lights to play night games.

[Laggard]

I'd love to see a shock collar on Rooney.