Sports Geek: Can the NFL move the chains and how the Wii can help you

What’s new this week in consumer tech trends? Our Sports Geeks offer up the latest in news spanning the world that could someday change the way you work and live (or at least the way your kids work and live).

Independent filmmaking has its roots in user-created video, and we bet there are people out there making great sports films and highlight reels. And they’re just waiting for a Web site to come along and give them an outlet to display their work.

Speaking of the user-created content wave, we’re waiting for it to make its move into sports video games. Exclusive deals have meant less competition in sports video game circles. 2K Sports announced its plan to release a pro football game this summer to compete with EA Sports’ successful Madden series. The 2K game, of course, will be unlicensed due to EA’s exclusive deal with the NFL. Midway also has an unlicensed football game, the over-the-top Blitz The League. Sports games without league licenses traditionally haven’t done well. But never underestimate the

arrogance of a pro sports league. It’s possible that unlicensed games may provide a natural opportunity for user-created leagues, teams and characters to make inroads.

Gaming interfaces for computers have moved way past the joy stick or driving wheel phase. It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing sports-oriented interfaces. Check out this flight simulator chair.

If they can make a GPS gadget that tracks your dog, is it possible someone can find a way to measure down and distance in football that’s a step above two sticks and a chain? Professional tennis uses the Hawk-Eye system to determine where the ball landed. Sportvision’s pitch tracking system goes online in all 30 MLB parks this year, tracking the trajectory of every pitch. The PGA Tour has an online subscription package that uses GPS to track every shot live. Surely football can do better than the chain gang.

Have you seen the Wii console’s interface? Here’s someone who used it to display content on his blog. Can you picture running a TV feed through something

like this? The Wii is Wi-Fi capable. What’s the possibility of running content in one of those windows?

And finally, here’s the Web site of a top-rated TV channel from China. This is what you’re up against. 1.2 billion people can’t be wrong!