Amazon is investing substantial artificial intelligence computing power into its NFL Thursday Night Football broadcasts. According to a September 10 announcement, Tackle Probability is a new machine learning model that analyzes, interprets, and possibly predicts impending defensive blitzes against quarterbacks. Debuting during the Prime Video livestream of the Miami Dolphins vs. Buffalo Bills game on September 12, Tackle Probability's results can be used by both real-time commentators, as well as provide "new ways of visualizing the action on the field." As GeekWire explained on Tuesday, this will include on-screen highlighting of the defensive players most likely to attempt tackles. "Until now, tackling statistics were limited to simple counts of solo and assisted tackles," Amazon Web Services (AWS) said in a statement.

The National Football League, like most professional sporting industries, is embracing artificial intelligence. Through a partnership with Amazon Web Services called Next Gen Stats, the NFL is hoping that intelligent algorithms, with the help of high-tech data collection tools, will be able to extract meaningful data from games and decipher patterns in player performances. AWS says it was inspired by submissions to the 2023 Big Data Bowl, an annual software competition organized by the NFL, when it set out to invent a new category of analytics that pertains to the analysis of "pressure" in the game of football. AWS helped build out AI-powered algorithms that can analyze player behavior on the field and can pick up on how aggressive a defender played, how fast they were and even how quickly a quarterback responded. This granular data quantifies pressure and in doing so, allows game analysts to dissect the strategies that might influence plays.

Behind every incredible play are thousands of data points you might otherwise miss, such as player's speed, field location, and movement patterns. The NFL uses AWS to track the scale, speed, and complexity of that data. It's called Next Gen Stats (NGS) and with AWS Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence technology, the NFL has developed ways to visualize the action on the field, uncover deeper insights, and expand the fan experience by offering a broader range of advanced stats.

The NFL is joining Major League Baseball as an AWS customer, announcing a deal today to provide real-time statistics running on AWS. The tool is part of the NFL's Next Gen Stats program, which will take advantage of AWS machine learning and data analytics tools to enhance its current offering. MLB has had a similar deal in place with its StatCast tool. The NFL uses RFID tags in player equipment and the ball to capture real-time location, speed, and acceleration data. Much like the MLB product, this data can be used to heighten the NFL broadcast experience by showing viewers a unique data-driven view of the play on the field.