Culture
Are NFL players as college coaches here to stay? Why DeSean Jackson, Michael Vick can work
Rodell Rahmaan has seen enough man-on-the-street interviews on social media to know he wants to do one. He’d love for a stranger with a camera to ask him the most famous person on his phone.
“I can’t wait,” Rahmaan said, “to tell them it’s Eddie George.”
The 1995 Heisman Trophy winner is in Rahmaan’s contacts list because of George’s second football life as the head coach at Tennessee State. Players at Norfolk State and Delaware State can relate after their programs hired Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson, respectively, this winter.
The trio entered those jobs with a combined 11 Pro Bowl appearances … and one season of coaching: Jackson’s eight-month stint as a high school assistant.
George, Vick and Jackson aren’t the only high-profile NFL alumni strolling college sidelines. Hall of Fame player Deion Sanders electrified Jackson State, then Colorado. Super Bowl-winning quarterback Trent Dilfer is trying to turn around his tenure at UAB. Another Super Bowl champion, Terrell Buckley, is a few weeks into his new job leading Mississippi Valley State.
But the depth of their experience differs. Sanders coached in Texas high schools and worked with top recruits at the Under Armour All-America Game before taking over his first college program. Dilfer spent four years as head coach at a Tennessee high school and tutored top quarterback prospects in the Elite 11 camp series. Buckley’s resume includes a decade as a position coach at programs like Ole Miss and Louisville plus a year as the head coach of the XFL’s Orlando Guardians.
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In a profession where coaches grind for years to climb the ladder, George skipped a few rungs when Tennessee State hired him in April 2021. Jackson and Vick did the same. Is the trend a reflection of the growing importance of money and celebrity in college football’s new era? Schools treating a marquee position as an entry-level job? Or merely Football Championship Subdivision programs with fewer resources and little to lose thinking outside the box?
“Everybody’s gotta start somewhere,” said Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference commissioner Sonja O. Stills, whose conference includes Vick’s Spartans and Jackson’s Hornets. “So why not start at an HBCU?”
The identity of HBCUs — historically Black colleges and universities — is central to understanding the moves. HBCUs like Tennessee State, Norfolk State and Delaware State were founded to provide higher education to Black students when no other options existed. It’s a mission Norfolk State rector Kim W. Brown highlighted while introducing Vick in December.
“We provide opportunity,” Brown said.
The hires provided a different opportunity when other head coaching doors were closed. Sanders tried and failed to land jobs at Florida State, Arkansas and TCU before an HBCU, Jackson State, gave him a chance in 2020. His Tigers went 27-6 — the program’s best run in more than four decades.
Though Sanders’ previous experience and one-of-one personality make him an unfair comparison to anyone else, he was a starting point in the trend. “The blueprint,” Buckley called him on social media.
Thank you brother! Proud of you too. Thanks for the support. You are the blueprint 🦾🔥 https://t.co/i37mcZu2J6
— Terrell Buckley (@27TBuck) January 31, 2025
Seven months after Sanders’ hiring, George inherited a Tennessee State program that went 5-14 in its two previous seasons. This fall, his Tigers finished 19th in the FCS coaches poll and won their first conference championship in 25 years. The industry noticed.
“With the success Prime and Eddie George and guys like that have had, I think ADs now are starting to really open up to the idea of how prominent NFL players are serious about coaching,” said Willie Simmons, who spent eight seasons as an HBCU head coach before earning the Florida International job at the FBS level this cycle.
Simmons said the lack of coaching experience for Vick and Jackson won’t necessarily show up on the field because both have been around elite players and coaches and stayed around the game in retirement. The bigger potential bumps envisioned by Simmons — who has been in touch with both rookie coaches — are administrative: building staffs with limited resources, mastering the NCAA rulebook and bylaws, figuring out fundraising and recruiting.
The trade-off is a climate where big-name coaches can thrive as the transfer portal and name, image and likeness payments disperse talent across a wider array of schools. At Jackson State, Sanders signed better recruiting classes than a few power-conference FBS programs and poached the nation’s top recruit, eventual Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, from Florida State.
George’s name resonated immediately as Rahmaan sat in the transfer portal after deciding to leave Bowling Green. The Columbus, Ohio, native figures he stuttered and stammered through the first five minutes of his initial phone conversation with the Ohio State legend. Rahmaan agreed to switch from defensive end to tight end and led George’s first Tennessee State team in receiving.
“It’s like you’re reconnecting with your childhood self,” Rahmaan said. “I felt like a child sitting in the first row in the meeting. When he’s talking, I’m sitting there smiling.
“It’s Eddie George talking. Eddie George, he’s calling me by my nickname.”
Eddie George is 24-22 in four years at Tennessee State. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
The local impact is significant. George is in the Tennessee Titans’ ring of honor after starring at the facility (now called Nissan Stadium) where his Tigers play. Vick grew up 30 miles north of Norfolk and took Virginia Tech to the national title game. Jackson played for three NFL teams (Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore) within 100 miles of Delaware State; an “E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES” chant even broke out during his introductory news conference.
Though it’s too soon to judge the full roster overhauls at Norfolk State and Delaware State, both have seen early bumps. Jackson has added his program’s top two high school signees of the modern recruiting era in three-star receiver Jadyn Robinson and three-star running back Deuce Weston, both of whom had Power 4 interest. He also landed Michigan State transfer Antonio Gates Jr., a former four-star prospect and the son of Jackson’s NFL contemporary.
Vick’s initial portal pickups included a former top-300 national recruit and Clemson signee (David Ojiegbe), one of the SWAC’s top linebackers (Jaden Kelly) and a promising three-star quarterback (South Florida’s Israel Carter).
It’s hard to ignore Vick’s status in Carter’s announcement. His social media graphic featured Vick in the background, as the Norfolk State coach on one side and the Atlanta Falcons’ quarterback on the other. Carter was in the center in a Spartans jersey. He, like Vick, wore No. 7.
Couldn’t Thank God enough for opening this door for me. All Glory To The King Most High!🔰🦅 #Committed #7Era #AllGod @MichaelVick @NorfolkStateFB pic.twitter.com/2DtmnYMIYF
— Israel Carter (@Isr8ael) January 17, 2025
If star power can lead to exposure in recruiting, the programs are also counting on it boosting exposure for the entire university, as Delaware State president Tony Allen acknowledged directly during Jackson’s introductory news conference. Allen said his three goals were to hire a leader of young men, a coach with tactical prowess and someone who could “continue to raise the profile” of a fast-growing HBCU.
The effects are real:
• Sanders’ Jackson State teams appeared on ESPN, ESPN2 and the cover of Sports Illustrated. Google searches for the team during his first fall were more than seven times what they were before his hire. Even after his departure, they’re still higher than they were before his arrival.
• Tennessee State’s football revenue and expenses have doubled since George’s hiring. Both figures totaled almost $7.1 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to data submitted to the U.S. Department of Education. The Tigers’ football budget soared from average in the Ohio Valley Conference in 2018 to first, by far, in 2022.
• Over the past 20 years, the only times “Norfolk State” was googled more than December (the month of Vick’s hiring) were its NCAA Tournament runs in 2012 (an upset of second-seeded Missouri) and 2021 (a one-point First Four win over Appalachian State).
At the MEAC, Stills said she received an immediate, initial influx from potential sponsors who wanted to “ride the wave right now.”
“Because HBCUs have always been underfunded, overlooked, they give us an opportunity to get more national exposure,” Stills said. “It gives us an opportunity to show a look into the institution — how we graduate more Black doctors, lawyers, engineers.”
And, if Vick and Jackson are successful, perhaps a new way to graduate Black coaches to the highest level.
Minorities remain underrepresented as FBS head coaches, and Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman just became the first Black head coach to lead his team to the national title game. Stills said she can envision HBCUs becoming feeders to the FBS as former pros learn the ropes in the FCS.
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The cynical read in the profession is that the exposure and financial impact of hiring green NFL stars trumped on-field possibility — the idea that, as one coaching agent put it, “Mike Vick’s gonna put butts in seats” matters more than winning games.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said the agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his relationships in the industry.
The traditional path has been to grind your way up from grad assistant to position coach to coordinator to head coach. The MEAC’s other four head coaches were all hired with at least 15 years on college staffs. Two had college head coaching experience, and a third (Howard’s Larry Scott) had an interim stint leading Miami. Vick and Jackson fast-forwarded ahead as if the most visible positions on campus were entry-level gigs.
“It’s like they’re learning on the job at a major D-I institution where so many of these guys are fighting for years to become the head coach, and now they’re just thrown into it because they have the NFL label next to them,” the agent said.
Then again, the profession has never been a true meritocracy. Coaches fill out their staff by hiring buddies or agents’ connections. A famous name can help a coach’s son or nephew land a first job. Is a famous name from NFL stardom any different?
The worst-case scenario for Vick and Jackson is what happened in the 2022-23 cycle at another HBCU, Bethune-Cookman. The school was set to hire Baltimore Ravens legend Ed Reed — who spent three seasons as a Miami support staffer — before he went on a profane social media rant about the program’s resources. The deal collapsed, and the Wildcats hired alumnus Raymond Woodie Jr. His quarter-century of coaching experience included more than a decade as an FBS assistant.
A more optimistic possibility is George’s Tennessee State tenure. Ohio Valley commissioner Beth DeBauche said she was initially curious about how George would fare in her league. Since then, she has seen a professionally run team — “a program that has had its house in order,” she said — with no disciplinary issues or other problems.
And after starting with two losing seasons, George improved to 6-5 in Year 3 and went 9-4 with an FCS playoff appearance last fall. That was good enough to earn him an interview with the Chicago Bears last month.
“There’s proof in the pudding,” DeBauche said. “We’ve seen the success, and others have seen this success in being able to build a program.”
There’s a risk, of course, just like any coaching move. But the risk is relative, as former Norfolk State administrator Glen Mason knows.
Mason is a longtime resident of Virginia’s Tidewater area and graduated from Norfolk State in 1983. He watched his alma mater’s past two coaches go a combined 36-65. The Spartans’ lone conference championship in the past four decades (2011) was vacated for NCAA violations. Mason was the program’s sports information director when the school filled its 30,000-seat on-campus stadium in its 1997 debut; the venue has had only one crowd larger than 28,000 since then (though Norfolk State did rank 11th in the FCS in average attendance in 2024 at 14,544 despite its 4-8 record).
The challenges may be even greater for Jackson at Delaware State. The Hornets have lost 23 of their past 25 games. They haven’t had a winning conference record since 2013 and have won the MEAC championship only once since 1990. Their average attendance last season (3,333) ranked last in the conference and No. 102 out of 130 FCS teams.
With that as the floor, what does anyone have to lose?
“There is no risk/reward for me,” Mason said.
If the potential risk is more losing, then the potential reward is what Rahmaan experienced firsthand at Tennessee State. He credits the extra attention George brought for getting him a spot at a Seattle Seahawks camp and stints in the UFL/USFL. He still beams when George texts him on his birthday.
Rahmaan doesn’t know Vick or Jackson personally, but he knows enough to think their new players are set to benefit, too.
“I love to see all that happening,” Rahmaan said. “I love to even think about the opportunities those kids are going to have.”
— The Athletic’s Ralph D. Russo contributed to this report.
(Top photos of DeSean Jackson and Michael Vick: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images and Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
The 2025 WNBA Draft will be headlined by UConn’s Paige Bueckers, who has been penciled in as the top pick ever since she decided to exercise her fifth year of eligibility. But beyond Bueckers, there is a deep pool of lead guards, scorers, and wings who are eager to make their impact at the next level.
Bueckers and several of her fellow draftees, including the Notre Dame and NC State duos, are still competing in the NCAA Tournament. UConn is seeking its first national championship since 2016 and first title for Bueckers. With so much left to accomplish, the draft seems far away, but the April 14 date in New York city is fast approaching, just eight days after the national championship.
Six WNBA general managers shared their candid opinions about the upcoming draft class with The Athletic before the NCAA Tournament began. They were granted anonymity to allow them to speak openly. On Wednesday, we’ll run another installment that includes their evaluations of frontcourt players such as Aneesah Morrow, Kiki Iriafen and Dominique Malonga.
(Players are listed in alphabetical order. Statistics current through Monday. Asterisks indicate a player has an additional year of college eligibility.)
Georgia Amoore | 5-6 guard | Kentucky
19.6 ppg, 6.9 apg, 36.7 mpg
“Great college basketball player. Can she do enough to be a rotational WNBA player who makes it to a second contract?”
“Georgia Amoore’s game will translate due to her ability to run a team and put her teammates in easy scoring situations due to her passing. She will excel in pick-and-roll situations and is a player with a very high basketball IQ.”
“It’s hard to succeed as a tiny, tiny guard, so size is just the main thing. If she can be an insane shooter off the dribble and with range, she has a chance.”
“She’s heady, does a ton of the (Steve) Nash stuff. She’s pretty smart in terms of knowing her limitations from a size perspective.”
“There’s no doubt she’s a scorer, she can shoot, she’s a playmaker. Point guards are at a premium. They’re hard to find.”
Georgia Amoore’s college career was outstanding 👏
🏀 First triple-double in VT history
🏀 Led Hokies to first ACC title and Final Four appearance
🏀 All-time assists leader for VT (656)
🏀 Tied Kentucky record for most points in a game (43)
🏀 2x First-team All-ACC & 1x… pic.twitter.com/mLxsboWkSH— espnW (@espnW) March 23, 2025
Paige Bueckers* | 5-11 guard | UConn
18.7 ppg, 4.8 apg, 63.4 TS%
“My only concerns with Paige are physical. If she can stay healthy, I think she’s an All-Star level talent. She can play with or without the ball which makes her super valuable. She scores at all three levels. She’s big and tall and long enough to survive defensively. I think her offense is better than her defense, but it’s hard to find things not to like about Paige.”
“Despite the fact that people always want to seem to talk about some potential flaws, (she’s)
still the most sure thing today in this draft.”
“The adjustment to the speed and physicality of the game will determine her immediate impact.”
“Great leader. She’s incredibly poised. She’s prepared, pro-ready and so impressive, on and off the court. A franchise foundational player.”
Sonia Citron | 6-1 wing | Notre Dame
14.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 38.1 3-PT%
“Total package player. … She’s got three layers to her scoring, she can defend multiple positions, her IQ is off the charts.”
“Hard to not like her in terms of what the game needs, the 3-and-D. “
“Very, very poised. Obviously shoots the ball tremendously well. She’s got the whole package. The game seems to have slowed down for her.”
“Big fan, don’t know the ceiling, don’t know the star power, but in terms of being a productive player on a winning team and raising the floor of your team, pretty big fan.”
Azzi Fudd* | 5-11 guard | UConn
13.2 ppg, 1.2 spg, 44.8 3-PT%
“She shoots it well but the sample size is so small. Not sure how she impacts the game outside of the threat of her shooting, and I don’t think her shooting numbers are off the charts either, so I’m a little worried about her having a bigger reputation than the actual impact.”
“Health is the No. 1 thing for Azzi. She has all the tools to be a great pro. It really comes down to her health. Great shooting, great defender.”
“She could be a really interesting complementary rotation player who can stretch it. Three-and-D potential player.”
Aziaha James | 5-9 guard | NC State
17.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.7 apg
“Really dynamic. Great finisher. Just gets downhill. Great defender. I think she’s going to be a really, really good guard in this league for a long time.”
“I could see her turning out to have an eight-year career. I could see her fizzling out and it just not working. I see her as a microwave scorer off the bench and those are necessary.”
“Her ability to adapt to defensive game plans against her when she gets to this next level will decide if she makes it or not.”
“A good combo guard, but might need to become more physical and stronger to be able to compete night in and night out in the WNBA.”
Olivia Miles* | 5-10 guard | Notre Dame
15.5 ppg, 5.9 apg, 40.1 3-PT%
“The second safest pick after Paige.”
“She’s definitely an exceptional passer. Her court vision in small spaces as well as full court is really, really special.”
“Big fan, especially if the shooting can continue to be where it’s at. I love the wiggle she has in her game. She’s got great feel, she’s got great change of pace. I love the combination of dribble, pass, shoot. I love her size at point guard. I think she can also probably play on and off the ball.”
“Incredibly dynamic. One of the best scorers I’ve seen in many years. At times, she’s taken out of the end of games defensively, but I think the defensive end is where she still has room to grow. Offensively, an absolute dynamo.”
Will Te-Hina Paopao become the latest Gamecocks player to be a first-round draft pick? (Aurelien Meunier / Getty Images)
Te-Hina Paopao | 5-9 guard | South Carolina
9.7 ppg, 2.9 apg, 37.1 3-PT %
“Solid college player. Clear 3-point shooter. Does she have enough to get by people and create at the next level?”
“Paopao has the ability to hit from long range. She has strong leadership qualities and is another high IQ player who can distribute the basketball.”
“Paopao is efficient offensively. Defends really well. You know Dawn (Staley)’s kids are going to come in and play their role, whatever they’re asked to do, no matter how big or how little. She really impacts the game on both ends of the floor.”
Saniya Rivers | 6-1 guard/wing | NC State
11.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 3.6 apg
“The good news for her is she can be a point guard. And if you can’t shoot, you better be playing point guard cause then you have the ball in your hands and you can survive a little bit more. A lot to like and a lot to question, but amazing tools to work with.”
“The most athletic guard-wing in the draft, but is there a place for a non-3-point shooter guard-wing in the WNBA?”
“The athleticism is mesmerizing. At times she gets a little bit out of control, so it’s just harnessing that and continuing to get better at just picking her shots, picking when she’s gonna drive, when she’s gonna shoot the 3.”
“Great length from the wing position and the possibility of being an elite defender with her length and athleticism.”
🚨: NC State advances to the SWEET SIXTEEN for the sixth time in seven seasons‼️
No. 2 NC State defeated No. 7 Michigan State, 83-49.
Saniya Rivers became the first player in NC State program history to post a point-assist double-double in an NCAA tournament game, while Aziaha… pic.twitter.com/EYB86AsF8I
— Posther Hoops (@postherhoops) March 24, 2025
Shyanne Sellers | 6-2 wing | Maryland
14.2 ppg, 4.2 apg, 41.8 3-pt%
“I love her size, I love her athleticism. She’s got all the tools, she just sort of at times, comes in and out. Any kid that’s playing for Brenda Freese for four years you know is disciplined on both ends of the floor.”
“She’s a scorer, she can play probably the two and the three and (stretch) four. Availability is often the best ability, and she’s had a little bit of a rocky year with some of the injuries that she’s had. But she’s also shown a really great resiliency in being able to bounce back.”
“Is she reliable or dependable with her scoring ability at the next level? Questions about her current health may have her drop in the draft, and ultimately, what is her best position at the W level?”
Hailey Van Lith | 5-7 guard | TCU
17.7 ppg, 5.5 apg, 1.2 spg
“A tough kid with a high basketball IQ. She can score from all three levels and is a player who, in clutch moments, you can get her the basketball and she can make something happen.”
“Hailey had success being a high-usage player. What will her role look like when she gets small windows in the W? How effective can she be in limited minutes early in her career, when she doesn’t have the ball?”
“So much grit. I love the fire that she brings when she steps onto the court. You know what you’re gonna get from her every single night. The question mark continues to be on the defensive end. She’s going to have to continue to get better. She’s never going to be the best athlete or the quickest, so she’s got to figure out how to pick her spots and be strategic in a way when she’s guarding players that might be a little bit bigger and faster than her.”
“She’s helped herself this year. She’s showing she can impact the game in different areas.”
(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Photos of Hailey Van Lith, Paige Bueckers and Olivia Miles: Ron Jenkins, Michael Reaves, Joe Buglewicz / Getty Images)
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Do you miss those robots yet?
We’ve spent the past five weeks watching them pop out of hiding, every time a catcher, hitter or pitcher tapped his head to ask his favorite robot umps: Where the heck was that pitch?
Then, almost instantaneously, a six-second animation would roll on the ballpark videoboard — and baseball’s spring training experiment with the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system would work its magic.
So now that it’s time to send those robots back from whence they came — namely, the minor leagues — as spring training fades into the rearview mirror, how’d that experiment go? That’s what we’re here to tell you, because over the past month, we’ve pretty much seen it all.
We’ve seen walks turn into strikeouts.
We’ve seen strikeouts turn into walks.
We’ve seen strikeouts turn into home runs.
We’ve seen fans boo those poor, well-meaning robots.
And in the midst of it all, Alex Cora revealed his worst robotic nightmare.
“My first thought,” the Red Sox manager said this spring, “was, like: Bases loaded … 3-2 count … ninth inning in the World Series … tie game.”
We’ll pause here to let you cue that imaginary 4K video in your brain. Now … here comes that pitch.
“Yeah!” Cora bellowed, pumping his fist. “Strike three! (A smile. A shake of the head.) No! Ball four! That’s where my mind went. And I was, like: Oh, shoot!”
OK, hold on. Don’t shoot. This was only a test. No World Series games were played this spring. It was only spring training, with an electronic ball-strike challenge system running in baseball’s test lab. It was all just for feedback purposes. We won’t see this technology in real games before next year at the earliest — and probably longer.
But that scene in Cora’s brain could happen someday, if — OK, let’s say when — this challenge system gets unleashed in games that count. So is that what we want? Is that what baseball wants? We’ll discuss those questions shortly.
First, though, we’re here to answer all your big questions — not to mention all the big questions you forgot to ask. So what did we learn from watching those robot umps this spring? Let’s discuss!
J.T. Realmuto likes ABS as a hitter. As a catcher? Not so much. (Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
Does the technology work?
Technology is a beautiful thing. You cue it up. You program the robots. And it does what it’s built to do.
A strike is a strike. A ball is a ball. And if you don’t like how the humans called that pitch, you challenge — and the robots end the debate.
Major League Baseball declined The Athletic’s request for specific data from this spring. But it has spent four years honing the ABS system in the minor leagues — and before that in the independent Atlantic League.
It has tweaked the definition of the strike zone multiple times. It experimented with different ways to match the height of the zone to the height of the players. And after all those tweaks, the league was comfortable that the technology was ready for its midterm exam.
“We have made a lot of progress in the way the system works,” MLB’s vice president of on-field strategy, Joe Martinez, said at a media-demonstration session last month, “and also the way we weave the system into the gameplay. And we’re at a point in Triple A where we have a system that the players like, the coaches like, the umpires like and the fans like.”
So this was the logical next step — to find out whether big leaguers liked it, but also to get feedback on what they didn’t like. I can help with that, because I’ve been asking the same questions all spring.
I thought the most interesting responses came from catchers, because they lived in Robot World on both offense and defense.
“I like it as a hitter,” said the Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto. “I don’t really like it as a catcher as much, just because I think it takes part of the game away, part of the catcher position. Framing is still going to matter, but it’s not going to be as big of a deal. So that part I don’t like. But as a hitter, I do like having the consistent strike zone.”
Tigers catcher Jake Rogers also thought that as the ABS strike zone establishes its presence in the sport, hitters will be the biggest fans — but not for the same reason.
“There are going to be a lot more balls called than normal, I think,” Rogers said, “because the strike zone is a lot smaller.”
Since veteran major-league umpires were told by the league just to call their normal zone, to get ready for a season without ABS, players found themselves living in a world with two different strike zones this spring.
“With ABS, I think the bottom of the zone drastically changes,” Rogers said. “It was a lot higher, and I think the top goes a lot lower. … So on the pitches that are close to the edge, the umpires are just going to call a ball and rely on us to challenge.”
But remember, the robot umps don’t know any of that. They just call the balls and strikes they’re programmed to call, whether Laz Diaz would call them the same or not. And hey, that reminds us of something important:
Big-league umpires are better at this than you think.
FanGraphs’ Davy Andrews pointed me toward Statcast data on Baseball Savant that shows how much ball-strike calls — by human umps — have gotten better in recent years. Here’s a look, in five-year increments.
| YEAR | ACCURACY |
|---|---|
|
2024 |
92.53% |
|
2019 |
91.54% |
|
2014 |
88.33% |
|
2009 |
85.15% |
(Source: Baseball Savant)
In 2024, that accuracy percentage actually ticked down — from 92.81 percent in 2023 to 92.53. Nevertheless, there were over 28,000 more correct calls last season than in 2008, the first year of available data. So let’s give those humans a big hand. That works out to over 1,000 more correct calls a week!
So is it worth using technology to chip away at the 7.5 percent or so that human umps are still getting wrong? That might depend on the answer to our next question …
Does the strike zone feel like the strike zone?
What’s a strike?
For almost 150 years, that has been the question that defined baseball. Hasn’t it? It all starts with the strike zone.
Too bad the strike zone you’ll find in your rule book isn’t the same thing as the strike zone that has been called by humans for pretty much that entire century and a half. Essentially, human umps call an oval-shaped zone — no matter how many times they’ve seen that rectangle in the rule book.
So why did baseball just spend spring training fiddling with a system that will not be used in a single regular-season game this year? It was all about the robot-ump strike-zone experience — “to get people some reps of experiencing the system,” Martinez said, “and seeing how it feels, particularly how the strike zone feels.”
In other words, it all comes down to this:
Every hitter, catcher and pitcher has an idea in his head of what a strike is and what a ball is. So for ABS to work — really work — the electronic strike zone has to feel essentially like the zone baseball players have in their heads.
You know what won’t work? If that zone feels just like some sort of technological creation.
So which was it this spring? Uh, let’s just say it’s a work in progress.
Rogers said that Tigers players had a chance to speak to commissioner Rob Manfred in person this spring. Guess what they asked about most when ABS came up? The strike zone.
“That’s the big thing we talked about with Rob,” Rogers said. “It becomes about: What is the strike zone? It’s the oldest rule in baseball. And then, when you start kind of tweaking it a little bit, it becomes different.”
Here’s what confused players the most, he said. As part of the ABS education process this spring, players were given an iPad that allowed them to review every pitch of a game, to see if the robot umps would have called it a strike or a ball. But they continued to get their usual postgame reports, looking at whether those same pitches were in or out of the zone — and they weren’t the same.
“It’s crazy,” Rogers said, “because on ABS, you look at the iPad … and (the pitch is) half an inch below the zone. And then we get our report back with the old strike zone, and it’s a full ball in the zone. So it’s like, wow, it looks like a strike. It feels like a strike. And all of a sudden, you’re thinking: Do you challenge, or do you not challenge? So you go back and look at it, and it’s a ball (on ABS).”
There’s a reason for that — even beyond the different technologies involved. Human umps are still being graded with a buffer zone that gives them wiggle room if a pitch is barely off the rule-book strike zone. But robot umps don’t know a buffer from a muffler. So a ball is either in the zone or out. Period.
Is that good? Is that what we all want? You won’t be surprised to learn that one player with some thoughts on that topic is Max Scherzer.
In his recent appearance on the Starkville podcast with me and Doug Glanville, Scherzer said one thing he’d like to see is “a buffer zone, maybe around the challenge system. So hey, if you challenge and it’s in the buffer, the call stands. So you keep human power, the human element, still with the umpire.
“I’m OK changing the call when it’s an egregious call,” the Blue Jays’ future Hall of Famer said. “But when we’re talking about a quarter of an inch that you can’t really detect it, I don’t necessarily know if that makes the game better.”
But when I mentioned Scherzer’s idea to an executive from an American League club, he swatted it away like a mosquito. What’s the point of honing the best technology, he wondered, if we’re then going to ignore it by dropping in a buffer zone?
“I think they’ve done enough research on it to come up with the right zone,” he said. “So I don’t think there needs to be a buffer zone. I think this ABS zone is very clear, very definitive. So I would not be in favor of a buffer zone. It’s just, that’s the strike zone. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere.”
What the powers that be would say is: What’s the difference between this and tennis? If a ball lands a 16th of an inch outside the line in the U.S. Open finals, you know what they’d call that — using the same Hawk-Eye technology? Out.
But when I ran that logic past one player this spring, he said: “This is not tennis. Tennis doesn’t have a catcher, right? There’s a reason why.”
GO DEEPER
Trea Turner challenges first pitch of the day from Max Scherzer
Max Scherzer would like to see a “buffer zone” incorporated into the ABS challenge system. (Jonathan Dyer / Imagn Images)
Did fans really boo the robots?
Boooooo.
Wait. Did I just hear what I thought I heard? It was a Feb. 28 game between the Phillies and Red Sox. Phillies center fielder Brandon Marsh had just taken a 2-and-2 fastball, slightly off the inside corner, from Red Sox ace Garret Crochet. So the count was full. Or was it?
Boston catcher Seby Zavala tapped his helmet. The robot-ump challenge cartoon played on the videoboard — and turned that ball three into strike three, much to the delight of …
Nobody watching this in the Phillies’ home ballpark, apparently — at least judging by that sound: Boooooo.
An inning later, there were still more boos when Realmuto and Red Sox prospect Marcelo Mayer challenged back-to-back pitches in the same at-bat, and both were called balls by the robot ump, handing Mayer a five-pitch walk.
“Did I really hear those fans booing the robot?” I asked Realmuto later.
“Well, it’s Philly, so there’s no telling what they were booing,” he said. “I think they were booing the batter for challenging. I know that they booed that. And then they also booed when I challenged and it ended up being a ball. So yeah, I guess they were booing the robot.”
How cool is it to win a challenge? The thrill of victory!
Dylan Carlson, aka the MVC (Most Valuable Challenger). (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
A minor-league manager told me last year that there was a lot more riding on these challenges than balls and strikes.
“It’s like a baseball IQ test for the players,” he said. “You really find out who knows the strike zone and who doesn’t.”
So what did we learn about baseball IQ this spring? That catchers (of course) are baseball geniuses, the group that got the most challenges correct … and pitchers, um, not so much. But the hitters? According to preliminary data, they were somewhere in the middle.
That isn’t all we learned, though. For the hitters who consistently aced their challenges, that thrill of victory was the coolest thing ever.
Heading into this spring, Orioles outfielder Dylan Carlson didn’t figure he’d challenge much. But that was before he turned into the MVC (Most Valuable Challenger) of the whole darned spring.
In a span of a week and a half, he challenged four called third strikes — and got all four overturned. Two of them came in one game against the Twins. Three of them were on 3-2 pitches, so they magically transformed strikeouts into walks. And the fourth was on a 2-2 pitch, which canceled a strikeout and led to another walk.
And after that, he said with a laugh, “They kind of gave me the green light to use it whenever I wanted.”
So Carlson went into the final weekend of spring training with more than twice as many walks (eight) as strikeouts (three). If this hadn’t been The Spring of the Robot Ump, he’d have had more strikeouts (seven) than walks (four). And his on-base percentage would have been over 100 points lower (at .351 instead of .459).
You think that guy is a fan of this robot-ump thing, or what?
“For me personally,” he said, “just the swings — going from strikeouts to getting on base — a lot of those were leading off innings. So it kind of changes the whole inning in some ways. You get a leadoff runner on, right? Then it’s go time. So it’s been interesting, for sure.”
All spring, I’ve watched players challenge, then turn their attention to the ABS cartoon on the videoboard. They couldn’t have been paying closer attention if that board was telling them whether they’d just won 10 million bucks. So I asked Carlson to describe the feeling — of paying rapt attention to that animation and then finding out he was right … again.
“So actually, every time I’ve challenged,” he said, “I’ve asked the catcher too: ‘Hey, was that a strike?’ And every time they’ve all said yes. So I’ve been a little nervous looking up at the board. But fortunately, they’ve all gone my way.”
Which beats the alternative, obviously. Speaking of which …
How brutal is it to lose a big challenge? The agony of defeat!
Even in subdued spring training, real humans are playing. And sometimes, their future is riding on these games. So when you’re a pitcher, on the fringe of a big-league roster (or hoping to get there someday), and you lose a challenge, is that just a “get-the-call-right” moment? Or is it more?
Yankees manager Aaron Boone thinks it can often be more. There is always an emotional component to these games. And just last week, he saw a game change on a challenge — and a swing of emotion.
It was the sixth inning of a game against the Red Sox. Right-hander Geoff Hartlieb was on the mound. Pitching with a two-run lead, Hartlieb got the first two hitters out, then thought he’d dotted the outside corner with a 2-and-2 fastball to Kristian Campbell.
The home-plate ump, Roberto Ortiz, pumped his fist. Strike three. Campbell had other ideas and tapped his helmet. The ABS animation rolled. The robots ruled the pitch was a millimeter off the plate. So this inning wasn’t over. Want to guess what happened next?
On the next pitch, Campbell walked. Then the next hitter, Masataka Yoshida, pumped a game-tying homer. Boone was steaming.
“Strike three, pitcher walking off the mound,” Boone grumbled the next day. “Oh. Challenge. Overturned. So it’s like, you’ve got a pitcher getting out of an inning. Makes a pitch. Walking off. Boom. Oh, no. Next pitch, home run.
“I just don’t like it, honestly,” he said. “I feel like the umpires are getting so good — and look, I know I’m the poster child, sometimes, for arguing — but literally, sometimes I’m arguing when they’re missing by, like, (a fraction of an inch). But I feel like more and more, these umpires are really good. And just the frivolous challenge — like the 1-1 pitch in the second inning. It’s stop … ball … challenge … 2-and-1 … no wait, 1-and-2. I just don’t like it.”
So, because he brought this up …
A moment of silence for managerial ejections
There once was a time when I would have paid to go to the ballpark and watch Lou Piniella, Bobby Cox or Don Zimmer get booted from a game by their favorite men in blue. Old-school baseball didn’t get more entertaining than that.
But now? We’re in serious jeopardy of never seeing another manager ejected from any game again — if those robot umps take over the world.
We’ve already gotten a preview of where this could be heading, thanks to instant replay. As recently as 2011, there were nearly 50 ejections across MLB solely because of calls on the bases, according to research by Retrosheet founder Dave Smith. Then replay arrived in 2014 — and by 2019, there was only one ejection, over a call on the bases, all season.
So the good old-fashioned managerial ejection tirade was already in trouble even before the looming arrival of ABS in any form. Ejection legend Bobby Cox once got thrown out of 11 games in one season. Dave Roberts has been managing for a decade — and has 12 ejections in his whole career.
According to Retrosheet, more than 70 percent of all ejections these days revolve around ball/strike “disagreements.” So what happens in a world where we suddenly start getting all the “big” ball/strike calls right? Will any of these managers ever get heaved out of a game again?
“I only get ejected once or twice a year anyway,” said the Tigers’ A.J. Hinch. “But you know, it’s funny. All the veteran managers have always told me: ‘Your job is to manage the game, not manage a game from your desk in your office.’ So yeah, you’re right. It’s getting harder and harder to get ejected. I mean, what do I argue about?”
But you’ll be heartened to know that Boone — the self-professed “poster boy” for arguing, and a guy who has led his league in ejections four seasons in a row — is not ready to concede his tirade days are over.
If this happens, I told him, he’ll never get thrown out of another game.
“That’s not true,” he promised. “I’ll find something.”
Phew!
Would ABS end manager ejections? Aaron Boone would like a word. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
What will broadcasters talk about?
You think it’s easy talking about baseball games into a microphone for three hours every night? It’s a great gig, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. So perhaps you’ve noticed that there’s a certain topic that’s pretty much guaranteed to come up every darned game. By which I mean …
C’mon. That pitch is not a strike/ball. How could he miss that pitch?
Have you ever wondered how many broadcast hours the work of the home-plate umpire has consumed over the past 50 years? Might be a million hours. Possibly a billion. Does Statcast track that stuff? It should.
But now imagine how different the life of the average broadcaster might be if some sort of technology was invented that would get every ball-strike call right — or at least the biggest ball-strike calls right. I can assure you that thought occurred to many a broadcaster this spring … when that technology suddenly arrived.
So I sought out Larry Andersen, the always-entertaining radio color analyst for the Phillies, a guy who has been known to express a few (affectionate) opinions about men standing behind home plate wearing blue jackets.
The Athletic: “I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but I’ve listened to you call games a few times. You don’t seem like you’re normally that happy with the umpires’ work beyond the plate. Would that be fair?”
Andersen: “That would be fair. I would say I’m not. But this is going to sound crazy, because they drive me nuts, but it’s gotten worse since they put the (strike-zone) box on TV.”
That, he said, is because now that there’s a depiction of the strike zone on the screen, it’s hard not to notice when a pitch misses that box “by 6 inches” and still gets called a strike. So guess what? He might mention that.
But Andersen also isn’t convinced (with good reason) that those TV boxes are totally accurate. Whereas the ABS rectangle is going to be basically 100 percent accurate, even if it might not correspond exactly to how humans call balls and strikes. So back to our original question.
TA: “So if we suddenly got every ball/strike call right in this sport, what would you talk about all night?”
Andersen: “Well, it would probably turn my wrath onto the players. And I don’t want to do that.”
TA: “Right. At least when you’re ripping the umpires, you’re a man of the people, because the people are with you on that. So if you weren’t ripping the umpires every night, what would happen?
Andersen: “It would really put a damper on my broadcasting career.”
So let’s ask this again, in a different context: Is that what you want? You know where to find me if you have some thoughts on that.
Thirteen of the 23 spring training ballparks were part of MLB’s ABS test. So, what’s next? (Mike Lang / Sarasota Herald-Tribune / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Are we sure this is what we want?
All right, let’s end where we began — with Alex Cora’s Game 7 dream/nightmare.
Game 7 of the World Series. Two outs in the ninth. Bases loaded. Here comes the 3-2 pitch. It pops the mitt. Strike three. You just won the World Series. Or did you?
Here comes the challenge animation. Was that pitch really 1-78th of an inch off the plate? According to ABS, it was. So don’t pop that champagne yet. This game is tied – thanks to those emotionless robot umps.
“I think most people would say: Well, it’s a ball, so it should be called a ball, and if that’s what determines the World Series, you should still call it,” said an executive of one contender.
He then rolled back the clock two springs and brought up the arrival of the pitch clock. Didn’t we hear the same stuff about the pitch clock? Would we really let a postseason game end on a clock violation?
“So what you described could be a possibility,” he said. “But I think the likelihood of that happening is pretty low.”
Then again, it’s not zero. Do we really want a World Series decided by a pitch that’s literally the width of a hair off the plate? I asked that question of an AL exec. He swatted it away like a piece of lint.
“Maybe just get the call right,” he said. “I mean, that’s not the ideal use of the system, but I heard the same argument when we went to replay. Hey, play at the plate. It’s bang, bang. The umpire rules him out. But we go to a replay. We wait. No, he’s actually safe. Game’s over. You win the World Series. What’s the difference? It’s the exact same thing.”
Is it, though? Of course, most want to use technology to make the game better. Of course, we want to get as many calls right as possible. Why wouldn’t we?
But I’ve spent all spring listening to people wonder whether we’re really making the sport better by using technology to decide ball/strike calls that are so close, the human eye can’t even detect them. It all depends, said another AL exec, on what the true goal is.
“I think the functionality of the system is great,” he said. “And it has worked seamlessly. But I do wonder a little bit: What are we trying to accomplish?”
When the sport first began testing ABS, he said, one of the big goals was to try to create a fixed strike zone that could reduce the strikeout rate and create more balls in play. Great idea. Never got there. No matter how the league adjusted the zone, no one ever figured out a variation that made more action happen.
“So that was the initial intent of the automated strike zone,” the exec said. “It has now morphed to (something else.) So I’m wondering: Is the focus now to try to get as many calls right as possible? Because if that’s really the goal, is it worth it? I’m not quite sure.”
You know who else is asking that question? Max Scherzer.
“Go back and look at the (2024) postseason,” Scherzer said on Starkville. “Are we really talking about (anything that) happened with the home-plate umpires and strikes or balls? No, I don’t think so. So what problem are we really solving?”
He, too, has seen the data that shows home-plate umpires are more accurate than ever. So use this technology, he said. Just use it to grade the umpires and make them even more accurate. But don’t fix what isn’t broken.
“We’re not saying there’s a problem,” Scherzer said. “We said in the postseason, there wasn’t a problem. Do we really need to be trying to change a fundamental part of the baseball experience? Pitching? Catching? I don’t think so. So that’s where I’m skeptical. That’s where I think, as an industry, we just need to have a conversation.”
But guess what? No matter how that conversation goes, it’s not going to keep the robot umps from invading one of these years. So let’s embrace those robots — and even boo them just to see if robots have feelings. But between now and the day they arrive for good, let’s also ask that fundamental question:
What’s the true goal here? What are we trying to accomplish?
Technology is awesome. Robots are the future. And right calls are better than wrong calls. But is the sport truly better off if a World Series gets decided on a pitch 1-78th of an inch outside a robotized strike zone? The answers are so much harder than the questions.
(Top photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
On average, about one in every 30 corners leads to a goal. The success rate tends to go up dramatically, however, when the goalkeeper and their entire defence are standing outside their six-yard box when a corner is taken.
That was the remarkable scene during the UEFA Nations League quarter-final in Dortmund on Sunday. Germany’s Jamal Musiala turned the ball into an empty net against an Italy team who acted like they thought the game would stop for them to hold a debrief into where everything had been going wrong for them during the first half.
Joshua Kimmich had other ideas and the combination of his brilliant quick-thinking and Musiala’s goal-hanging — allied to a ball boy who was, well, on the ball — led to Germany doubling their 1-0 lead from a highly unusual corner on 36 minutes, and making fools out of Italy in the process.
Musiala celebrates scoring in a highly unusual way (Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)
The goal evoked memories of Liverpool’s fourth against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final second leg at Anfield in 2019, when Divock Origi swept home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s swiftly-taken corner to take the Premier League club through 4-3 on aggregate. On that occasion, though, there was a goalkeeper standing between the posts. Gianluigi Donnarumma, in contrast, went AWOL in Dortmund last night.
It wasn’t just the Italian goalkeeper who was caught out. Amazon Prime, which was showing the game live as part of a pay-per-view package, almost missed the goal completely too, with viewers only seeing exactly what had happened when a replay was eventually shown.
The bizarre chain of events started with Donnarumma producing an exceptional one-handed save to claw striker Tim Kleindienst’s twisting header behind for a corner. Italy were being outplayed at the time, trailing by a goal on the night following a Kimmich penalty and 3-1 on aggregate. In that context, it was not surprising that their players were annoyed.
As Kleindienst turned away holding his head in his hands in disbelief and disappointment, Kimmich (circled below), quickly made his way to the corner flag.
Italy wing-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo (No 22) started the inquest, pointing with his right arm and looking in the direction of his central-defender team-mate Alessandro Bastoni. With his back turned on the play, Bastoni was gesturing too as he walked towards Di Lorenzo.
Donnarumma decided to get involved as well. Wandering outside of his six-yard box with arms outstretched, the Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper was oblivious to the presence of Musiala behind him, free as a bird in the six-yard box after following up Kleindienst’s original header.
By now, some important work had already taken place off the pitch. A steward (circled behind the goal below) was busy trying to retrieve the ball Donnarumma had tipped behind.
As the steward bent down to pick it up and motioned to throw it back, he realised a ball boy (also circled) close to the corner flag was already delivering a chest pass that had pre-assist written all over it (think Callum Hynes, the teenage Tottenham Hotspur ball boy who got a high five from their then manager Jose Mourinho after his quick-thinking led to Harry Kane scoring in the Champions League against Olympiacos in 2019).
As Musiala signalled to Kimmich to take the corner quickly, Donnarumma carried on walking and joined what was now a group of five Italians, who had congregated outside the six-yard box to dissect their problems. The only thing missing was a tactics board and a table and chairs.
Central defender Alessandro Buongiorno, who also had his back to play, was among that group, as was fellow centre-back Federico Gatti, who was busy wiping his face with his shirt. The rest of the team may as well have been covering their eyes too.
Late for the meeting, midfielder Samuele Ricci (circled below) was about to become the sixth Italy player to offer his thoughts until he saw Kimmich out of the corner of his eye and sounded the alarm. Unfortunately for Italy, it was far too late.
After placing the ball, Kimmich had spotted Musiala on his own — it was hard to miss the Bayern Munich youngster, especially when he was waving his arms about like an aircraft marshal on a runway — and the corner was launched, arcing towards the edge of the six-yard box.
Although the ball was slightly behind Musiala, forcing him to retreat a little, there was plenty of margin for error on the delivery; six yards to be exact. As Musiala shaped to swivel and strike the ball with his right foot, Donnarumma pivoted too, in a state of blind panic. Musiala’s shot was en route to the back of the net before the goalkeeper had a chance to get reacquainted with his six-yard box…
… and Germany were 2-0 up.
Italy, to their credit, staged a superb fightback to come back from three goals down to draw 3-3 on the night (losing 5-4 on aggregate). But the damage — some of it self-inflicted — was done during a chaotic first half.
“Everyone knows we struggle from set plays, but we cannot keep talking about it, or this will turn into an obsession,” Italy’s head coach, Luciano Spalletti, had told reporters a few days earlier.
And thanks to Musiala’s bizarre goal, that topic of conversation is here to stay for Italy for some time yet.
(Top photo: Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
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