Sportsball fans who are also electronics savvy - what is this?

[DaveC426913]

Any body have a clue what that little device is that man is holding near the ground?

It's got two connectors, so presumably one is power the other is signal, but is that signal in or signal out?

 

[Kristoffer]

Might be a device for sending the mic signal to the sound engineer.
Looks like it's hooked up to the guy getting interviewed.
Would make sense since it's a quick way to mic up people not usually connected to the production.

 

[gmilam]

Looks like the sportsball player is wearing a headset with a microphone. I would assume it's attached to that.

 

[Janus58]

I'm wondering if it's being used to control which mike (player's or interviewer's) is live. If both are live at the same time, then they each could pick up the speaker's voice, causing some odd audio issues.

 

[billvon]

Any body have a clue what that little device is that man is holding near the ground?

Could be:

Mute switch for one of the mics
Tally light to tell talent when they are live
Light meter (unlikely)
Camera for reverse angle (unlikely)