Peter King and his readers, get some new material

Say what you want about ESPN's TMQ, but at least he's original. Here is his idea about putting a chip in the football to avoid goal-line controversies, written November 20, 2008.

"More importantly, why do we even have to discuss this stuff? Let's put a chip in the football and end these debates.

If swim meets and horse races can be photo-timed to the hundredth of a second, it is ridiculous that the football world has to argue about whether a ball crossed a line. Some kind of radio chip embedded in footballs, and weighing next to nothing, could surely provide a GPS-like readout on whether the ball touched some kind of electronically projected line in front of the end zone and along a field's sidelines. Considering the state of miniature electronics, this doesn't seem as if it would be very hard to do. College engineering departments surely would compete for the right to design such a system. The system might prove too expensive for high schools and small colleges, but with all the money involved in the NFL and in football-factory colleges, the price of adding electronic sensing would be small by comparison. So let's insert a chip in the football!"

Now here is Peter King's mailbag, written December 16, 2008:

"• GOOD IDEA. From Steve Gillespie, of Houston: "Peter, isn't it about time that a chip is placed inside the NFL game ball that can signal upstairs when it crosses the goal line?''

Excellent point; I'd love the see that technology used if it can be perfected. The other idea, from Bill Belichick, is this one: why not have fixed cameras on the side of every NFL goal line, looking straight down the line from slightly above the field, with fixed cameras looking down each sideline and each end line also. I'd love to see something to take the doubt out of those replays."

I would be willing to bet the same people reading King's MMQ and are also reading Easterbrook's TMQ. So Steve Gillespie of Houston (and Peter King by association), get some new material.