The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have bought all 90 players iPad 2s to view game film and their playbooks on, reports the St. Petersburg Times The payers are able to reference video of any game or practice and review situational videos for any NFL team, all while listening to their favorite soundtrack.
Second-year safety Cody Grimm is loving the fact that he can review the game reel from his own couch at home. “It’s convenient. It’s fast. I was snacking out on the couch and watching some film, and realized I was, like, two quarters through (a) game already.”
The Buccaneers’ coach Raheem Morris hatched the plan to buy the team iPads duing the lockout when he had nothing better to do than to watch tons of video of draft prospects. Morris says that the iPads started out as glorified playbooks, then they started using them for video.
How would “Free” (Josh Freeman) like to sit there and watch third down from Detroit and Miami so when he comes to work the next morning, he’s seeing the tape again and putting it all together?’
The team said the decision makes a lot of sense as many of the players are younger and more technically savvy. Using an iPad is second nature to these young players that have grown up on video games and Apple products.
Besides the convenience benefits, there is also the matter of playbook security. Instead of a panic when a playbook is lost or misplaced, a missing iPad can be wiped remotely with the ‘Find my iPhone’ feature.
This sounds like a pretty slick arrangement, I wonder how long it will take other teams to start catching on.
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