NFL Teams Considering IPads To Replace Playbooks

bonch writes "Pete Walsh, technology head for the Dallas Cowboys, says he and other teams are considering iPads and other tablets as a replacement for paper playbooks, saving about 5,000 pages of printouts per game. Not only is it a huge savings in paper, but a lost iPad might also be remotely wiped to prevent a team's plays falling into the wrong hands. One concern is security and whether or not a tablet could be wirelessly hacked."

Re:Maybe for dome teams

[Anonymous Coward]

Players don't generally read the playbook on the sidelines unless they're on the bench, at which point they generally take their gloves off since it's equally difficult to flip through a book with gloves on. On another note, they would need to get some deal with apple to let them side load the playbook though since I'd imagine not many teams would want to submit their playbook for approval to the app store.

Re:Uh...

[vlm]

Turn the wireless function off

Duh???

The "Duh" part is being worried about the wireless, merely because wireless is "new and trendy" to the non-technical masses. The part to worry about is the itunes running bot infested keylogger installed windoze box it syncs and backs up to. Or whatever backend system they're using, perhaps they're just planning on front ending google docs, hope no one share those files to the wrong person.

Also its "easy" to embed watermarking for each individual printout (stupid example, much better exist, player #28 gets 28 extra spaces scattered thru his printout) As far as I know, no one has a system like that for an ipad, so you simply loan the ipad to your new best friend and while you're busy cashing your check, he's busy taking untraceable snapshots of the ipad displaying each page with his cellphone or fancier camera. I've never tried placing my ipad platen down on my photocopier, must try this when I get a chance....

How does this work now?

[timeOday]

I didn't know they have a different playbook every week. What do they actually do with them? If the 5,000 pages is copies for half a dozen coaches, that's almost 1000 pages each, which I can't imagine they're flipping through between plays. Or is it 50 pages for each of 100 players and coaches? But that doesn't make sense, I can't imagine they're memorizing 50 pages of plays per game.

no real savings

[pz]

So 5,000 pages of paper. That's one case (actually 1/2 a case if you assume duplex printing). Buying high-quality paper, that's going to be $50 or less ($25 for half a case).

An entry-level business-grade B&W laser printer costs maybe $500, will handle 100,000 pages in its lifetime, and takes toner cartridges that print between 7500 and 15000 pages each at about $200 each retail. Being a little excessive and buying a new printer per season, a case of paper per game, and a new toner cart every other game, you get 500 (cost of one printer) + 1 (cases of paper per game) * 16 (games) * 50 (cost of one ream) + 0.5 (carts per game) * 16 (games) * 200 (cost of one toner cart) = $2900, or an amortized total cost of $0.36 per page. And that's being very generous on retail costs and consumables. I routinely print conference proceedings (18k total pages) for an amortized total cost for closer to $0.05 per page by shopping around even just a little. If they're printing in color, I'd expect the amortized total cost to be between 2 and 3 times higher, so, with a little work, perhaps $0.15 per page, but still well under the generous estimate of $2900.

Each iPad costs, what $500? And they need what, one per player, coach, assistant coach, owner, etc.? The so-called savings are a slight-of-hand distraction. They just want iPads.

Even if you were to say that the saved paper, not money, was really the issue, and that saving 16 cases of paper (probably 8, since if they're concerned, they'd already be printing duplex) was important, I'd point to the 10-or-so tons of recycled material per game that envionmentally conscious teams like the Ravens are capable of (http://www.mdstad.com/content/view/96/42/) that dwarf one (1/2) case of paper.

Again, they just want iPads.

As the linked article suggests, there are many things you could do with iPads that you can't do with a traditional printed playbook, like review plays, run simulations, etc., but the teams should be upfront with that and not toss the public a propaganda bone like paper savings that can be shown to be irrelevant in the bigger picture.

Re:Maybe for dome teams

[Concerned Onlooker]

How do comments like this get modded up? By people who have an emotional grudge against Apple? Give me break.

Re:So who actually plays an NFL game?

[OG]

Much of the excitement in football (as in all sports) comes from watching humans with tremendous talent who spend a huge amount of time developing that talent. Like any other sport, strategy is important. But the strategy is partially built around the strengths and weaknesses of the actual humans who make up the team, as well as those of the members of the opposing team. I'm not a huge football fan, but I recognize the difference between multiplying a fairly arbitrary number representing "will" or "skill" by the random roll of a die and a team of people who are fatigued, injured, and withstanding adverse weather conditions, pushing themselves to the utmost limit not only for themselves, but for their team and the millions of people cheering them on towards victory.