The NFL's chain gang, which is older than the six-point touchdown and the three-point field goal, may finally be getting an upgrade, per Yahoo Sports AM.

The news: The NFL will test an optical tracking system for line-to-gain rulings this preseason. If all goes well, it will be implemented for the 2024 regular season.

• The system was tested at MetLife Stadium and Hard Rock Stadium last year, and the NFL's competition committee voted in March to approve its use for all teams this preseason.

• The chain gang wouldn't disappear entirely; they'd still be on the sidelines to give players, coaches and fans a visual marker of the first-down line to gain.

How it works: The ability to optically track the ball has long been available and used by the NFL for its Next Gen Stats technology, notesYahoo Sports' Jason Owens.

• Per the league, a tracking system is installed at every stadium that includes "20-30 ultra-wide band receivers," "2-3 radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags installed into the players’ shoulder pads" and "RFID tags on officials, pylons, sticks, chains, and in the ball."

• For years, that system has been used to gather data, analyze player performance, and enhance TV broadcasts (think: TNF's "Prime Vision"). Now, it's finally being used to determine a fundamental aspect of the game: how far the ball was advanced.

A century-old tradition: "The touchdown was worth five points until 1912, when it was upgraded to six. The field goal was worth four points until 1909, when it was downgraded to three. But in 1907, Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide advised game organizers to 'provide two light poles, about six feet in length, connected at their lower ends by a stout cord or chain ten yards in length,'" Rodger Sherman writes for The Ringer.

(U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)

Failed attempts to replace the chain gang:

• In 1929, someone invented a gizmo with wheels and signs that ran on a track alongside the field (see above).

• In 1954, the "Pere-Scope," which looks like a surveyor's tool, was used in 21 college football games.

• In 1974, the World Football League used a device called "The Dickerod," which was invented by George Dicker and probably should've been called something else.

• In 1976, referees spotted balls at the Senior Bowl using a system that featured a laser beam and a receptor rod.

Ball-spotting will never be perfect: While the optical tracking system effectively eliminates human error from line-to-gain rulings (i.e. close calls), what about all the other times officials spot the ball? Those decisions, which happen quickly within the flow of the game, remain inexact.

Consider this, from Sherman:

There is a trick officials use to basically eliminate the need for chains. On first downs, they can spot the ball not where the last play ended, but on top of a yard marker.

This way, the line to gain for the next first down will also be on top of a yard marker, and officials can determine the next first down spot by seeing whether the ball’s tip crosses the yard line in question.

The trick gives or takes up to a half-yard from teams, but the spot of the ball is an estimation anyway, and the team still has to go exactly 10 yards from the approximate spot.

The bottom line: Football is a game of inches, and for all 104 of its seasons, the NFL has entrusted chain gangs to measure those inches. If this is the end, it was a heck of a run.