nfl - News, Features, and Slideshows

In days gone by, a senior IT lead was like the conductor of an orchestra, working with a large team to deliver a symphony masterpiece.

With the start of the U.S. professional football season around the corner, Microsoft unveiled the new tech it's going to be providing coaches and fans this season as part of its ongoing partnership with the National Football League.

Every one of the 32 NFL teams has 60 players that often receive medical care from hospitals or other facilities they've never visited before.

No, the NFL's Deflate-gate controversy involving the New England Patriots' footballs during its AFC Championship win over the Indianapolis Colts has little to do with enterprise networking. But in case you haven't seen it, the league has finally issued a statement on the topic as the build-up to Super Bowl XLIX heightens.

The National Football League's CIO, a position that didn't exist three years ago, explains how the NFL is tackling big data challenges, overhauling stats and bringing new technology on the field and behind the scenes.

Building a successful team goes beyond hiring charismatic leaders. You need to balance strengths and weaknesses at the board room table. Kathy Harris, managing director of Harris Allied, a firms that provides executive search services, likens it to the "charismatic leaders" in the NFL. She noticed the similarities between a winning NFL team and IT team by watching her brother-in-law Franco Harris, former NFL player and Pro Football Hall of Famer, get recruited.

Among all the talk of rookies, holdouts, fresh starts and, of course, the never-ending Deflategate conversation, there's buzz around a new topic at NFL training camps this year: virtual reality (VR). Several teams in the NFL are testing VR during summer practices in hopes of giving players new perspectives, in-depth data during film studies and a leg up on the competition.

Drones and virtual reality (VR) both have barriers to overcome before they see widespread adoption in the enterprise and consumer worlds. Professional sports organizations are taking the lead and working hard to overcome those initial challenges. Teams are always looking for any competitive edge, in the stadium and in business, and part of that is to constantly test new technologies. But can drones and VR translate into real value?