If you’re the high-profile head coach of one of the biggest NFL teams, you apparently can’t get real work done on a tablet

Can you get work done using a tablet? Microsoft and its Surface tablet seem to think so, but at least for one high-profile Surface user, you can’t. The New England Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, is going back to using a pen and paper.



There’s a lot of technology in use on the sidelines of an NFL game, with various radio mics between players, coaches, press, referees and others, and it all goes wrong on a weekly basis, according to Belichick. But the one thing that annoys him most is the tablets.

In a five-and-a-half-minute rant, Belichick said: “As you probably noticed, I’m done with the tablets. I’ve given them as much time as I can give them. They’re just too undependable for me.

“I’m going to stick with pictures as several of our other coaches do as well because there just isn’t enough consistency in the performance of the tablets, so I just can’t take it anymore.”

Microsoft is one of the primary sponsors of the NFL, placing its Surface tablets in the hands of coaches and players on the sidelines, fed from large Microsoft-branded tablet cupboards. But while the NFL seems happy with the tablets, some players and coaches haven’t been quite so pleased.

Some have taken to throwing them on the floor. Belichick, who openly smashed one down on to the edge of an equipment case, was later handed a new one.

Rich Hill (@PP_Rich_Hill) Belichick watching this game on a tablet right now: pic.twitter.com/cBM0gb9UWm

Belichick said: “I’ve tried to work through the process but it just doesn’t work for me and that’s because there’s no consistency to it. I’ll use the paper pictures from here on because I’ve given it my best shot.”

Microsoft says that none of the tablets have failed on the sidelines, even when smashed into the heads of players such as Johnny Manziel, and that at least one of the high profile “failures” has been at the hands of dodgy Wi-Fi rather than the tablet itself.

Melissa Riofrio (@MRiofrioPCW) Microsoft: A Surface that survives Johnny Manziel couldn't fail Pats https://t.co/jRgmijbL5a @markhachman @pcworld pic.twitter.com/IsViOIwntd

Either way it seems that for at least one professional sportsman you can’t get real work done on a tablet.