“The Denver Broncos are tossing out the tradition of printing 500-page playbooks every week for each of the 120 players, coaches, scouts and other personnel,” Andy Vuong reports for The Denver Post.
“This season, the team will hand out iPads that feature the week’s game plan, scouting reports, video clips and other relevant data,” Vuong reports. “The digital transition will not only save trees but may also give the Broncos a competitive edge. Just two other teams in the National Football League — the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers — have discarded the printed playbook in favor of a tablet and an app. Now when Broncos head coach John Fox adds a play, the update will be pushed automatically to the playbook app on each player’s iPad
Vuong reports, “Consumers have purchased millions of iPads since Apple introduced the tablet computer two years ago. But the NFL is starting only now to adopt the technology. ‘The NFL is very protective of the game on the field and not allowing technology to alter the play on the field,’ said Tony Lazzaro, director of football information systems for the Broncos. Because of this, the league doesn’t allow electronic devices such as tablets on the sidelines during games. But for the first time, players and coaches this season will have access to those devices in the locker room up until kickoff, Lazzaro said. Previously, the gadgets had to be removed 90 minutes prior to the start of the game. The league may eventually allow them on the sidelines for specific purposes, such as for coaches and players to view still photos of in-game formations and plays. Currently, players are handed paper printouts of those images.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple iPads make the best playbooks. (smirk.)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “DTrenton” for the heads up.]
More miraculous than Tim Tebow experiment was.
You’re an idiot. Tebow has been successful everywhere he’s been–including Denver Donks–where he took an INEPT surrounding cast (OL, WR’s et al), coaching & front-office management (horse-face Elway) to the friggin’ playoffs–despite missing the 1st 3 games.
Tebow’s no experiment–he’s the REAL DEAL. So go back to your WNBA & leave the football to the dudes, eh?
Its amazing what technology can do to help improve every day life. Smart for the few teams in the NFL to be using these devices.
It is evolving: according to this other article, “While only two teams have officially loaded their playbooks onto iPads, a MAJORITY of other NFL teams use the devices for unofficial training”
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/football/the-nfls-ipad-revolution-6651161
Wow, so they’ve been burning through an entire ream of paper for each player every single week for a whole season? That’s 120 reams of paper per week for 18 weeks, or about 2,160 reams of paper. So, we’re talking about 3-4 skids’ worth of paper at over a ton apiece. Not that an NFL team is worry about printing costs, but they’ll probably pay for the iPads in one season!
Glad to see that Elway’s Business Degree from Stanford didn’t go to waste.
Theyre probably using Madden for the plays -:)
The problem is that Peyton is so old, he needs to be able to make the print bigger so he can read it. (Barum bum)
GO PATS!
Peyton calls the plays on the fly! He doesn’t need an iPad. GO COLTS-er-Broncos-er-Stanford- er….
Can’t wait until copies of the files end up on some torrent and opposing teams are caught downloading them. When the NFL finally realizes what’s happened, they’ll probably want to take away all 32 first round draft picks….d’oh.
The Patriots are already working on a way to hack into their opposition’s playbook… from videogate to iPadgate.