More players in the American National Football League have come out against use of the Microsoft Surface tablet during games.
At the weekend, San Francisco 49ers coach Chip Kelly told the Mercury News: “There have been times when there are some glitches in them. And there are some times when it’s really sunny out that it’s tough to see the tablets.
“I haven’t had any issues where they just don’t work. Sometimes it doesn’t work perfect and you have to shake it a little bit.”
The team's quarterback Colin Kaepernick said, half-jokingly, that he had to knock the tablet on the side to get it to unfreeze. "That happens every once in a while and they have to reboot it," he said.
{loadposition sam08}But, in sharp contrast, the coach of the Seattle Seahawks, Pete Carroll told the Seattle Times, “I don’t know if it’s because we are so close to home base but, shoot, I think the quality of our stuff has been great.”
The Seahawks are owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
#NE coach slams a #Microsoft #surface tablet due 2 unreliability. #nfl should try #apple https://t.co/jEgCPhO0dx pic.twitter.com/akCSNhVIdT
— YELLFY (@yellfy) 19 October 2016
Last week, the best coach in the NFL, Bill Belichick, declared that he would no longer use the Surface tablets, saying he just could not take in anymore.
Microsoft is reported to have paid US$400 million to the NFL for the Surface tablets to be used during games in a five-year deal beginning in 2013.
Reacting to Belichick's comments, the company published a long blog post, beginning, " This week Surface has been at the centre of the debate on the role of technology in the NFL, with different opinions shared from coaches and players. We thought it might be valuable to share some additional context from our perspective."
The post included quotes attributed to players and one coach.
One quote, attributed to Drew Brees, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, runs thus: “You can imagine with a 15-play drive, there would be like 40 pages worth of stuff. The staple wouldn’t go all the way through, and photos would be dangling and falling out, and then you’d have two plays and have to go back out on the field. Now you walk to the sideline and it’s seamless. With Surface, I can make plays instantaneously.”
According to Yahoo! journalist Daniel Roberts, the quotes read like they were written by the Microsoft public relations team.
In an op-ed titled Microsoft's tablet deal with the NFL has been a disaster, Roberts wrote that the blog post was an indication that Microsoft knew it had a big problem on its hands.
"The idea was for the visibility of the tablets on the sidelines to raise brand awareness of the Surface, and help it compete with iPads. But it’s had the opposite effect for Microsoft. When the deal expires in 2018, don’t be surprised if the NFL tries something else for its tech," he wrote.