Under a sponsorship deal with the NFL, Microsoft provides teams with Surface tablets to use on the field for game analysis and strategy. Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson says the Surface Pro tablets saves time and provides up-to-the-minute photo and video of plays done on the field. If Russell Wilson wanted to go over a play with his teammates, he had to wait for a three ring binder filled with pixelated photos to be brought down from the stands. It was frustrating to Russell Wilson and he thought that he was not able to explain the play the way he wanted.
Microsoft created a customized Surface Pro tablet just for use by the NFL. Now reviewing plays is available at their fingertips, they can zoom in on plays and see what works and what does not work much faster than their old archaic way. Wilson is excited about this new technology and if it helps win games:
Get the new play right away, and see what’s going on, be able to zoom in, look at the picture, the process, the speed is much faster for me and you can learn a lot more. When we were playing the 49ers, they were playing a great game the first half and we made adjustments in the second half because of what we were seeing on the sidelines.
Given that the co-founder of Microsoft owns the Seattle Seahawks, as with Microsoft’s deal with the NFL, it is no surprise that Russell is using Microsoft products (and promoting it). However, it could be the fact that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen owns the Seahawks and likely introduced his players to Microsoft products before the deal with the NFL was announced. Either way, it seems that Russell Wilson enjoys Microsoft products, as during the interview, he was sporting his newly purchased Microsoft Band. Wilson even admitted to the reporter that he uses a Surface Pro 3 tablet off the field for taking notes in Microsoft OneNote and for video conferencing on Skype.
