Report: NFL veterans having trouble with Microsoft Surface technology

While Microsoft’s Surface certainly is looking cool on the NFL sidelines, it might not be all positive exposure for the company as a recent report says a number of veteran players are having trouble transitioning to the new technology.

The Wall Street Journal reports the tablet PC is proving difficult to use for some of the league’s older players and coaches.

Tom & Curley Show host Tom Tangney calls Microsoft’s deal to get the Surface on the sidelines “brilliant marketing,” but points out, “if it starts going south in the NFL, that won’t be such a plus.”

“I’m totally overwhelmed by it,” New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick told the WSJ. “There’s no way I could [use it] without somebody holding my hand and helping me through it.”

“It’s sort of funny, they say the youngsters, the rookies are kind of showing the older vets how to do it,” says Tom.

There are of course easily observable advantages. “It certainly beats the old magic marker,” says co-host John Curley. “Or the 500,000 page playbooks they used to have to carry around,” adds Tom.

A big thing that is confounding players, according to the WSJ report, is keeping the battery charged.

“This [tablet] would work a lot better for me if it was actually able to turn on,” 31-year-old Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth told WSJ. “I show up every day and it is totally dead. As [scatterbrained] as I am, this is really, really bad.”

That seems like a problem the NFL or players could overcome with a little more planning or a few more charging ports in key meeting rooms.

Overall, Tom figures the advantage of having the Surface looking sweet in the hands of Russell Wilson – an official spokesman for the Surface – outweighs a few reports of trouble getting used to the technology.

“All those eyeballs that the NFL gets, everybody sees that every Sunday and it’s not announced, you don’t have to say ‘Surface tablet, Surface tablet.’ You just go ‘hey what’s Russell Wilson got there? I want one of those.'”