It wasn't so long ago that we expressed our fan boy excitement about the news that Coaches Film would be available to fans for the first time via NFL Game Rewind. On Monday, the NFL unveiled another nugget.
Coaches Film, only on NFL.com
Purchase NFL Game Rewind and receive access to Coaches Film, which includes camera angles previously only available to coaches, scouts and officials.
Game Rewind will enable fans (and writers) to use a "telestrator" function. You can get your Madden on while drawing over a still frame and saving it to send to your buddies. (Or your enemies.) This should be a cool function among friends who want to share commentary, and a tool for the media to explain to its readers how a play worked.
You almost need to see the feature to believe that it's available to anyone, anywhere. We've come a long way with online access to football footage in a short amount of time.
The other big takeaways from the session:
- Coaches Film will be available to users the Wednesday following games. The regular broadcast and condensed version of the games will be ready at midnight after Sunday's action.
- Game Rewind will be available on tablets, including the iPad. This is the biggest news to me. It also will be on some (but not all) Android tablets. The NFL is confident the large majority of tablet owners will be able to get the product.
- You can purchase Game Rewind now, and it will be ready for use on tablets at some point before the regular season starts. The NFL will follow up with an exact date.
It's all good news for football junkies. It's also cool for my wife because I will no longer hog the TiVo by taping every game imaginable for later use.