Another Satisfied Customer!

I’m sure anyone who’s tried to find an autosaved Word file (“we buried it the 16th subfolder! Each less intuitively named than the last! Designed by software engineers who find BlackBoard too elegant and user-friendly! Assange’s best hackers couldn’t find it!”) can identify:

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who has never been one to embrace technology, has had it with Microsoft Surface tablets on NFL sidelines. He went on a surprisingly long-winded rant about the devices in today’s presser, where he essentially said that the tablets suck ass and he’s not using them anymore.

The Patriots had dealt with issues in Sunday’s game where their technology and headsets weren’t functioning properly. Belichick told reporters that the team’s IT guy had done all he could, and any issues beyond that were on the NFL. “I don’t know how much urgency there is on the other part from the league standpoint,” he said.

Belichick isn’t the only one to complain about the result of the league’s multi-year, $400 million deal with Microsoft. As Kevin Clark of The Ringer wrote in August, the NFL’s players and coaches have had mixed reactions to the prevalent tablets on the sidelines. Many of them preferred binders to look at plays and formations, since those don’t require batteries.

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The NFL released a reminder that Microsoft paid the league a lot of money for this deal…

Speaking of Smilin’ Bill, I’ve long believed he was right that every call should be challengable, with a requirement that a specific error be identified, not just “look at the play and see if you see anything.” Continue to limit the number of challenges, make clear that only indisputable evidence can overturn a call, and let coaches decide what they want to challenge. The fact that John Fox and Rex Ryan will still burn most of their challenges with failed attempts to challenge spots to gain 1 yard on 1st quarter punts would just be part of the fun. All three of the terrible pass interference calls from the last weekend would have been overturned and I don’t know why they shouldn’t be, although of course in the specific case of Sherman mugging Jones this should properly been seen as a character-building exercise for the Atlanta metropolitan area. (Can we also talk about how Seattle basically couldn’t legally cover Jones with two Hall of Fame defensive backs? That’s one example of trading up you have to say worked.)