http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/sports/football/bill-belichick-patriots-might-be-a-mac-guy.html 2016-10-18 21:00:11 Bill Belichick Might Be a Mac Guy The Patriots’ reticent coach goes on and on about how unhappy he is with the Microsoft Surface tablet. === “They’re just too undependable,” “It’s basically a problem every week,” he added. “I just can’t take it anymore,” he said Was Belichick talking about backup quarterbacks? Properly inflated footballs? Nope. He was talking, of course, about the scourge of the N.F.L.: tablet computers. The Microsoft Surface tablets that the league uses on the sideline to provide images of plays are an I.T. nightmare, Belichick said. “I’m going to stick with pictures, which several of our other coaches do as well, because there just isn’t enough consistency in the performance of the tablets,” he said at a news conference that sounded more like a CNET review. “As you have probably noticed, I’m done with the tablets,” he said. After taking some shots at other sideline technology, he concluded by saying: “I’ll use the paper pictures from here on because I just have given it my best shot. I’ve tried to work through the process. But it just doesn’t work for me, and that’s because there’s no consistency to it. Long answer to a short question, sorry.” Microsoft entered into a long-term sponsorship partnership with the league in 2013. At the time, the N.F.L. had a In 2014, Belichick noted that the system had crashed, but seemed mostly cool with it: “I’d say that’s all kind of part of the game.” Zack Cox of New England Sports Network Belichick was also unhappy with the other communications systems at the game, like the ones between the press box and the sideline and between the coach and the quarterback. “Those fail on a regular basis,” he said. He noted that the league does not supply the equipment to the teams until a few hours before the game, making troubleshooting difficult. “So I would just say there are problems in every game,” he said. “There were problems last week, but there were problems the week before that, too. Some are worse than others. Sometimes both teams have them, sometimes one team has them and the other team doesn’t have them.” The N.F.L. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Belichick’s remarks.