Down With Technology: Bill Belichick Is Done With NFL's Tablets
BOSTON (CBS) -- Machines are slowly taking over. It's a reality that we're all dealing with in the 21st century.
But some people are rising up against the machines, and they now have a new leader. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is officially done with some of the NFL's new technology on the sidelines.
"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," Belichick told reporters on Tuesday. "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. I just can't take it anymore."
After numerous attempts over the years, the NFL has finally broken Belichick. All it took was him breaking a few tablets. It was just two weeks ago during a loss to the Buffalo Bills that Belichick was caught furiously throwing one on the sideline. Just this past weekend, the Patriots had to go with signals on the sidelines as their headphones gave out during their win over the Cincinnati Bengals at Gillette.
In all, Belichick spoke for over five minutes about stuff that doesn't work on Tuesday. Here's his tidbit on the headphone malfucntion:
"There are very few games that we play, home or away, day, night, cold, hot, preseason, regular season, postseason, it doesn't make any difference; there are very few games where there aren't issues in some form or fashion with that equipment," he said. "And again, there's a lot of equipment involved, too. There are headsets in the helmets, there's the belt pack, that communication, there's a hookup or connection to internet service or that process and so forth with the coaches and the press box. So, there are a number of pieces of equipment, there is a number of connections that are on different frequencies. Again, not that I know anything about this but as it has been explained to me there are a lot of things involved and inevitably something goes wrong somewhere at some point in time. I would say weekly we have to deal with something."
This shouldn't come as any surprise though, as Bill's disdain for electronics is nothing new:
https://vine.co/v/OA9A2hUX2eY
Look out, tablets and trinkets. Bill Belichick has declared war.
UPDATE: Microsoft released the following statement about Belichick's dislike of their tablets:
"We respect Coach Belichick's decision, but stand behind the reliability of Surface. We continue to receive positive feedback on having Surface devices on the sidelines from coaches, players and team personnel across the league. In the instances where sideline issues are reported in NFL games, we work closely with the NFL to quickly address and resolve."
