Dan Campbell has spent his whole playing and coaching life on the field, and after the Lions' preseason opener he admitted there's a lot happening out there he never actually gets to see.
During a response to a reporter asking Campbell about a play where a player got hurt, his response was that he couldn't tell them much, because he wasn't watching the same game they were.
"You get a better view than I do," Campbell said. "I don't get to see all that stuff."
"I wish they'd just give us a monitor we can walk around with so we actually watch the game with you guys while we're watching that game because you can't see all the little things."
Turn on any NFL game and you'll see coaches staring up at the video board or Jumbotron during a tight play, and especially when they're considering throwing a challenge flag, they're looking for the angles that aren't available to them via the tablets.
That's the nature of coaching during an NFL or college game that's being broadcasted to the masses. You're locked in on your matchup, your call, the team across from you, and the broadcast catches ten things you won't find out about until you turn on the film.
The tablets teams carry don't close that gap. Those tablets show still photos and coaching video from the standard end zone and sideline camera angles, the same feed that has fed NFL assistants and support staff photos for years. They don't show the TV broadcast, so all the replay angles the fans at home get, and the reporters in the press box get, aren't available to coaches on the sideline.
That's why coaches lean on the guy in the booth or steal a look at the stadium big screen before deciding whether to throw the challenge flag. They're often reacting to information everyone else already has.
Campbell isn't asking for a competitive edge here. He's asking to see the full perspective of the game he's coaching.
The league has been cautious about live video on the sideline for years. Real-time broadcast access opens up questions and concerns about what a staff could pull from it in the moment. Fair or not, that's very real, but most would argue there's still wiggle-room between handing coaches the full broadcast production and simply letting a head coach see what a play actually looked like.
Campbell's ask is simple, and it's hard to argue with. Give the coaches a monitor with some of the broadcast angles available.
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