Denver Broncos Look To iPad Playbooks For Digital Advantage
by Brent Dirks
April 23, 2012
Along with featuring a new, high-powered quarterback this season, the Denver Broncos will also have a different way to look at the team’s playbook. The Broncos are turning to Apple’s iPad to replace printing a 500-page playbook each week for the entire team.
According to the Denver Post, the NFL squad is equipping 120 players, coaches, and other personnel with a 64 GB Verizon LTE iPad. Purchasing the $829 tablet for team members will cost upwards of $100,000. But Bronco officials said they expect to save money on printing while giving the team a digital advantage.
"The advantage is that when they leave the building, they can take everything home with them very easily and watch tape at night and review the game plan installation," said Broncos general manager Brian Xanders. "This is their full-time job -- to prepare and do whatever they can to help us win each week."The Broncos won’t be heading to the App Store for their playbook. PlayerLync has designed a custom app for the team that allows players and coaches to write notes and highlight certain plays. A very interesting feature of PlayerLync is that the app will run in the background, allowing coaches to push updates automatically.
"It used to require players to come in, meet as a group, hand off pieces of paper, 'Here's your new play,'" said Bob Paulsen, PlayerLync chief executive. "Now it's all going to be automatically downloaded."As a security feature, the iPads can be remotely wiped so a playbook doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Also, if the network connection is disabled, the app has a feature that deletes the playbook after a certain amount of time. Thanks to updated rules this season, players can have access to the playbooks right up until kickoff. But the iPads have to be stowed during the game and can’t be used on the sideline by players or coaches. The Broncos are just the third NFL squad to turn to the iPad, joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baltimore Ravens. While the upfront costs are somewhat high, do you think the iPad playbook will eventually become standard issue across the NFL? (Via AppleInsider)