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NFL Mandates Locker Room Cameras For Scoreboard Video, Team Apps

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — The NFL has ordered all teams to have cameras in their locker rooms next season, with video shown only on stadium scoreboards.

Commissioner Roger Goodell long has sought ways of "enhancing the fan experience in our stadiums," and this is the latest attempt to do so. The videos will be available on team apps as well.

Each team will operate the cameras and will determine what is shown on the video boards and apps. The Cowboys already have been making such videos available to fans.

NFL vice president of business operations Eric Grubman said last summer that the cameras were coming. They have arrived.

"Then we will be offering unique content, as we already are doing with the video replays involving referees," Grubman said. "I can see cameras in locker rooms or tunnels or coaches' facilities before games. Fans want it, and clubs can do it."

Teams also will be required to show all replays available during a video review on the video boards, not just those the home team would choose — ones that might be favorable to the host club.

Grubman has predicted more in-stadium improvements for fans, especially in the use of videos.

"We're thinking of really advanced video in concourses and parking lots," he said. "Fans want to know what is going on around the league, they don't want those areas to be a zone of less information and it doesn't need to be."

The locker room video "will be available only in stadium and the content will be available only of the home team."

"You can show it or not show it," Grubman said during a World Congress of Sports panel discussion Wednesday, according to SportsBusiness Journal.

Is the NFL going overboard by ordering locker room cams? Be heard in the comments!

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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