Robot tackling dummy destroys Baylor staffer (Video)

In a battle of man versus machine at Baylor football practice, the machine got revenge.

Preseason football practice is now going on across the country, for NFL and college teams most notably. Battles for starting jobs are ongoing, and Baylor has one going on under center during their fall camp entering Matt Rhule’s first season as head coach.

But post-practice time leads to antics, and creativity at times. Baylor associate athletic director Sean Padden had a foot race against a robotic tackling dummy after Friday’s practice, with a team curfew apparently on the line.

While hardly an exhibition of great athleticism, Padden won the race against the tackling dummy pretty easily. But in the end, the machine got revenge after its own slow start. And, much to the delight of everyone involved, coach Rhule documented the race and the post-race aftermath for Padden.

The tackling dummy was surely programmed to run in as straight a line as possible, and perhaps a certain distance. Padden paid the price for letting his guard down a bit in victory, but he probably would have gotten smoked anyway as a standing target.

Machines of all kinds make our lives more efficient, generally speaking, and football is not immune as robotic tackling dummies like this are integrated into practice. Padden had a response to the man vs. machine battle, referencing past similar epics.

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Machines indeed won’t fight fair, especially if they won’t take kindly to losing to a human. But a robotic tackling dummy originally developed at Dartmouth a couple years ago was operated by joystick, in order to create less player-to-player contact while better simulating real tackling and movement. So a coach was probably at the controls at Baylor’s practice on Friday.

Rhule has plausible deniability in any revenge against Padden after losing the race though, as he took the video and posted it to Twitter.