
Bill Belichick Throws in the Tablet - kitwalker12
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/19/sports/football/bill-belichick-patriots-might-be-a-mac-guy.html
======
dhemmerling
Surface is getting all the heat in the article, but in the linked interview
[1] he blames pretty much every part of the infrastructure other than the
interface:

> The other communication systems involve the press box to the coaches on the
> field, and then the coach on the field, the signal caller, or the coach-to-
> quarterback, coach-to-signal caller system. Those fail on a regular basis.

> And again, there's a lot of equipment involved, too. There are headsets in
> the helmets, there's the belt pack, that communication, there's a hookup or
> connection to internet service or that process and so forth with the coaches
> and the press box. So, there are a number of pieces of equipment, there is a
> number of connections that are on different frequencies.

> And then during the game sometimes something happens and it has to be fixed,
> and first of all, you have to figure out what the problem is. Is it a
> battery? Is it the helmet? Is it the coaches' pack? Is it the battery on the
> coaches' pack? I mean you know, again, it could be one of 15 different
> things.

[1] [http://www.patriots.com/news/2016/10/18/bill-belichick-
confe...](http://www.patriots.com/news/2016/10/18/bill-belichick-conference-
call-transcript-1018)

~~~
malenm
The NY Times didn't include this gif I saw on Deadspin[1]:

[https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--
unnNrpz...](https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--
unnNrpzl--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/kr0ogkrmpjqlxupcbs17.gif)

I think it paints a clearer picture as to why the Surface was singled out
among the equipment.

[1] [http://deadspin.com/bill-belichick-is-sick-of-those-
stupid-m...](http://deadspin.com/bill-belichick-is-sick-of-those-stupid-
microsoft-tablet-1787931452)

~~~
zck
If Belichick threw his paper notebook^1, would you assume it's because of the
notebook? Or because his team just threw an interception, missed a field goal,
or lost the game? I don't think we have any context as to what happened in
that gif.

[1] For example: [http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/03/Fuck....](http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/03/Fuck.gif)

~~~
trynewideas
He threw the tablet because it wasn't working for him, per Belichick:

> As you probably noticed, I’m done with the tablets. I’ve given them as much
> time as I can give them. They’re just too undependable for me. I’m going to
> stick with pictures as several of our other coaches do as well because there
> just isn’t enough consistency in the performance of the tablets, so I just
> can’t take it anymore.

~~~
zck
I see no called-out connection between anything in the article and the gif at
the top of it. It's a good gif to go along with the article, but I don't think
we can say "he threw the tablet in this image because he was angry with it".

Edit: this comment is at -2 at the moment. If I'm wrong, please make the
connection. I earlier pointed out that coaches are often emotional^1, and we
have no idea if him throwing the tablet is related to him being angry at it,
or even if it's a recent image.

[1] [http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/03/Fuck....](http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/03/Fuck.gif)

------
tw04
I'm guessing it has far more to do with network connectivity than the tablet
itself. The problems he describes to me sound like exactly what I would expect
in a stadium filled with 100,000 cellphones emitting wifi and cellular
interference.

I'm guessing the NFL didn't get clearance from the FCC to use a dedicated
wavelength within the stadium to isolate their systems from noise.

~~~
mikey_p
There is actually an immense amount of coordination that goes into an NFL
game, even more so for the Super Bowl:

* [http://blog.rfvenue.com/karl-voss/](http://blog.rfvenue.com/karl-voss/)

"... at the Super Bowl we manage ... basically anything D/C to light that is
allowed inside the NFL venues.

~~~
erobbins
Yep. I had a friend who worked the Super Bowl, his only job was to detect and
locate (and handle) rogue sources of RF energy.

------
pyrophane
Now, I have to preface this by saying that I don't know much about football
and even less about coaching it, but I wonder how much of this speaks to a
lack of a real need for a technology solution for coaches. If it were
providing a lot of value to them, I imagine they'd have a harder giving it up.

This NFL suggests that there is such a need: "Since Microsoft has been a
partner of the N.F.L. and implemented their technology on our sidelines, the
efficiency and speed of communication between coaches has greatly increased."

But of course, that is the NFL speaking about a partner's product, so I can't
imagine them saying anything else.

~~~
yk
Belichick is considered the best coach in football of the last twenty odd
years, so he has probably his process with pen and paper nailed down. And the
thing is, new technology requires a learning curve both individually and also
on a larger scale culturally, so I would guess that tablets after a year or so
of use would provide a lot of value, however they do not do so now.

~~~
coleca
Reminds me of a story I heard during a project management class many years
ago. The PM was working on a govt contract for the US Army in the late 90s to
build a mobile mapping system for use in the field on the Humvees. He got all
the specs from the generals to build this marvel of a technology system with
screens and scrolling maps (90s remember) and decided to talk to the soldiers
in the field to ask them what they wanted out of the project.

The soldiers told him what they really wanted was a piece of plywood that they
could fold out and lay their paper maps on. They didn't want screens or
electronics, because those don't work with bullet holes in them, but the paper
maps work fine even if they get shot.

~~~
8_hours_ago
This kind of stuff still happens all the time today. A few years ago I worked
for a small government contractor which did a lot of phase 1 and 2 projects
for the DoD. Most of the contracts we got were for developing experimental
technologies to make soldiers more effective, which involved a lot of guessing
what the soldiers actually wanted. After making a shiny demo (usually held
together with duct tape, ugly perl scripts, and prayers) which the government
PM would fall in love with, we would do field testing which would inevitably
end with the soldiers reporting that it was a cool piece of technology, but
almost completely useless to them. Anyway, it was lots of fun to work on those
projects :)

------
arcanus
> Microsoft entered into a long-term sponsorship partnership with the league
> in 2013. At the time, the N.F.L. had a list of demands for the equipment,
> including ruggedness, ease of use, size, effectiveness in extreme
> temperature and glare resistance.

> 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,” he said.

> “I just can’t take it anymore,” he said at a news conference Tuesday.

This is an under-reported challenge of the increasing automation narrative: we
need more robust systems.

~~~
treehau5
Robust systems are achievable already. We need managers that understand
quality takes proper planning, time, and deep, concentrated, uninterrupted
work.

~~~
SteveNuts
And money. Don't forget about lots and lots of money.

I'm going through this headache right now.

~~~
ChuckMcM
This is a huge challenge for quality software. As others have noted there is a
disconnect between users, developers, managers, and quality/reliability
engineering such that nobody seems to have enough of the picture to make the
best decisions.

Sales wants more features to be competitive.

Management wants to ship it because it will generate revenue.

QRE/Manufacturing wants more time to test all of the features and their
interactions.

And everywhere money gets squeezed out, sales wants to offer a discount to
"win the deal", management wants to improve the margins by lowering the cost
to develop, and the factory wants to ship product faster and spend less time
qualifying it.

------
liquidise
This speaks to a higher level perception about software. Bugs and crashes,
however inconsistent, irreparably damage the sentiment about using a
technology. Younger folks grew up in an age with these inconsistencies and are
less perturbed by them. To older folks though, manual systems rarely "fail"
during use. The bar of acceptance is a great deal higher when your reliability
and availability are compared to pencil and paper.

Long story short: quality is always important. as the median age of user
rises, quality requirements increase dramatically.

~~~
greedo
Younger folks...

My TWC cable net connection has been dropping on a daily basis for the last
two months. Resetting the modem solves it until the next outage. (TWC has
since replaced a shit ton of stuff to fix this).

So everyday, my two special snowflakes would get pissed when the Wifi would go
nowhere. They would text me expecting me to fix it even when I'm in the
office. They would text me when I was watching football (my only sacrosanct
timeslot). They would text me when taking a dump. I could feel my blood
pressure rise everytime I heard the phrase "The WiFi is down!"

So no, I think you're completely wrong about youngsters being less perturbed.
When I was their age, my motto was "I want my MTV..." Their motto is "I want
my WiFi..."

~~~
superdaniel
If you're talking about the built-in wifi on the TWC given box then I would
try using a third party access point. I was having the same problems as you
and that solved it for me.

~~~
greedo
No, I'm using an Airport. The entire connection was down, but it was more
annoying since the kids could connect to wifi, but it wasn't able to get
outbound.

------
Twirrim
Mostly what stands out to me from this is that they only get the tablets just
a few hours before the game.

That's ridiculous, unless the NFL is also providing all the technical support
(which Bill's actual rant doesn't imply they do.) Having just a short time to
use, test and get them ready for the game is incredibly lousy, and certainly
won't give the team's IT people any chance to seriously troubleshoot and
improve the situation.

It doesn't matter who makes the tech, or how solid it is. You can't just throw
tech at a problem and expect it to solve it.

~~~
coleca
Since the tablets are operating wirelessly it becomes very hard to test since
the conditions before the game aren't the same as what occurs during the game.
All the fans with their smartphones aren't there yet polluting the airwaves
until the game starts (some don't make it in until after the game has already
started).

Also worth noting that some of the reporters were complaining at last week's
game that the WiFi was down in the press box at Gillette Stadium at the start
of the game. There could have been a bigger networking issue going on there.

The Pats use Extreme Networks WiFi gear in the stadium.

~~~
hackuser
> Since the tablets are operating wirelessly it becomes very hard to test
> since the conditions before the game aren't the same as what occurs during
> the game. All the fans with their smartphones aren't there yet polluting the
> airwaves until the game starts (some don't make it in until after the game
> has already started).

By now, the IT team should know the gametime environment very well. It should
no longer be a surprise to them.

~~~
jpindar
Knowing roughly what conditions to expect is not the same as actually testing
equipment under those conditions. The team staff aren't trying to simulate or
predict anything, they're trying to test the performance of the specific
tablets they get, under game conditions.

On gameday there are thousands of different rf sources - deliberate and
otherwise - in the stadium. You can't simulate that in as much detail as
needed.

------
dredmorbius
It's not just capabilities, but _reliability_ that matters.

If I've got a system that takes a bit of consistent prodding to happen, or can
do A & B reliably but not C, _and it is consistent about that_ , it's almost
_always_ far more acceptable than a system which works _most of the time_
without prodding _but then falls down copletely_ , or a system that does A, B,
& C, _but fails to work right 10% of the time_.

That little bit of uncertainty pokes an sticks at you. It's always at the back
of your consciousness. A football coach's job _is to coach the game_. It's
_not_ to to try to figure out what's wrong with his comms equipment _or even
if it 's working correctly or incorrectly_.

Closely related: the paradox of automation.

[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/crash-
how...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/crash-how-
computers-are-setting-us-up-disaster)

------
bennettfeely
Also must be quite depressing for Microsoft when the announcers refer to the
Surface tablets as iPads during the game.

------
vermontdevil
He also noted that the comms system fails regularly.

Seems NFL sets them up a few hours before kickoff.

Perhaps it is time for NFL to improve their tech support in all areas. There
might be a relationship between the tablet issues and the problems with the
comms system.

------
ChuckMcM
I wonder if there is an actual product here or if there is just a product
placement. And by that I mean has anyone sat down with coaches and said "Given
what you do in a game on the sidelines, the choices you are making, the
questions you are asking, and options you are trying to weigh; Is there a way
to improve the tools you've already been using with some automation?"

Anyone know?

~~~
mountaineer22
I don't, but why would a coach give up his expert knowledge to all other
coaches he is potentially competing against?

The incentives for all parties involved in this situation is less than ideal.

~~~
TillE
I'm sure there are plenty of retired NFL coaches out there who would be
willing to advise.

~~~
favorited
That assumes that the needs of retired coaches are the same as the needs of
coaches today.

------
greedo
Network issues are most likely the problem, especially if the devices are
issued by the NFL prior to gametime.

A coach needs a few things to really make this valuable. First they need a
play chart for selecting the appropriate play call for the corresponding down
and distance. This can be a canned application that doesn't require network
connectivity after it's been loaded, but networking would allow an assistant
to update the player personnel availability in real time so that you don't
call a play with improper personnel.

The other thing the tablets replaced was the physical photos the teams used to
use to review plays. The NFL previously made the teams use B&W photos sent
down to the sidelines. They don't want the teams to use live replays for some
reason, though the monstrous displays in most stadiums make this dumb.

So if you take out the network connection, these lose a lot of their value. I
can't imagine a more hostile environment for Wifi than a stadium packed with a
bazillion cellphones, plus goofy atmospherics due to design.

------
xemdetia
What a terrible URL: [http://.../football/bill-belichick-patriots-might-be-a-
mac-g...](http://.../football/bill-belichick-patriots-might-be-a-mac-guy.html)

I think there is a lot to be said about the fact that any event that has as
much tech as an NFL broadcast and that it is never setup permanently will
always run into some issue. The base complaint seems to be just that the
league gives him the stuff too late to work out any unforeseen issues, and so
it just is a sprint to troubleshoot week after week where he could just show
up with briefcase full of printed plays and this just not be a problem. It's
not like he has a shortage of bodies for manual labour on the sidelines.

~~~
Twirrim
your URL got shortened in the most bizarre way (I swear I'm seeing this happen
more and more often on HN)

~~~
freehunter
He intentionally removed the domain name to highlight the rest of the
permalink. It's the same URL as linked in the title, but he's highlighting the
"bill-might-be-a-mac-guy" part of it.

------
elchief
I have a feeling that the NFL doesn't really need tablets on the sideline, but
Paul Allen (MS Founder, Owner of the Seahawks) had something to do with it.

------
wyager
I'm not sure if wifi is actually the problem here as many are claiming, this
is a good read about sports frequency coordination:
[http://www.radioworld.com/article/photo-holding-
page/279450](http://www.radioworld.com/article/photo-holding-page/279450)

Frequency management in a stadium is very hard. It's mostly done by volunteer
ham radio people.

------
edw519
This is what inevitably happens when you have a solution looking for a
problem.

I have 2 "systems" at work...

One includes email and a white board with index cards taped to the wall next
to it.

The other includes Jira, Confluence, Infor, Sharepoint, Word, Excel,
Powerpoint, Adobe Illustrator, GIMP, Skype, Webex, Success Factors, and a
whole bunch of other stuff.

If I don't need all this horrible shit to build software, why would anyone
need any of it to play football?

------
woodandsteel
Hahahahaha, Microsoft really screwed itself on this.

Ipads are more reliable and have a better gui, so why is the NFL using surface
tablets? It's because Apple didn't need to push the ipad, but surface was
really new and Microsoft really needed to promote it anyway possible, so it
made a huge marketing push on the NFL, no doubt making it financially very
attractive and promising all sorts of help.

What Microsoft seems to have not thought out is it would work out well for the
coaches only if the entire network system worked flawlessly, or surface would
get rejected by association, and so they should have given extensive help to
make sure that happened. But they apparently didn't do that, the network
screwed up endlessly, and sure enough, surface is being painted as no good.

------
wtvanhest
I own two computers and have a work laptop (all PCs):

Computer 1: Dell - Works as expected

Computer 2: Lenovo Thinkpad (work) - Old, works amazing

Computer 3: Surface pro - Randomly unresponsive, often times the keyboard has
to be disconnected and reconnected. Often times it just freaks out and starts
clicking where I am not clicking.

I followed all troubleshooting steps. It is terrible.

------
stevehawk
Technology seems to be a huge issue at the Patriots home stadium. Pretty much
every visiting team coach that's been there complains about headset failures /
communication issues between coaches/on-field captains. Mike Tomlin said "It's
always the case" when speaking about them failing. Like countless other people
are saying in other comments - this is likely just a huge radio frequency
collision issue for all of the wireless operations of any stadium.

~~~
hackuser
From TFA:

 _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.”_

------
babesh
Did you know that 30 years ago, Polaroids were the new hotness? The difference
between those and today's tablets is that the Polaroids were utterly reliable.
Both provide additional value from what was there before.

The interesting question is why the new tablet/network is unreliable. My
contention is that many physical processes are not vulnerable to single points
of failure but that software is.

------
mmgutz
Has anybody ever used a tablet or laptop outside? They're unreadable. This
isn't a problem with surface, it's a problem with most electronic devices in
the sunlight. There probably are other glitches but low tech film isn't going
away anytime soon.

------
zeveb
I've seen this time and time again in multiple different industries.

Electronics technology & software are truly great and wonderful, but they are
still too immature (the latter more so) to be truly reliable. I'm confident
that someday they will actually be superior to physical technology like pads
of paper, but they're just not there yet. Honestly, I don't really expect them
to get where they need to be within my lifetime.

For that matter, high-tech stuff isn't as reliable as low-tech stuff. I know
that when I pick up my landline wired headset that I will have crystal-clear
calling, every single time; I don't know that with my cordless phone; I don't
know that with my cellphone. I know that when I pick up a pen & paper, that I
will be able to quickly write and draw whatever I want; I don't know that with
my laptop, nor with my tablet, nor with my phone.

------
DeBraid
> Zack Cox of New England Sports Network timed Belichick’s denunciation of NFL
> technology at 5 minutes 25 seconds

------
samfisher83
How much values does Microsoft derive from paying 80 million/year to use these
tablets.

------
davesque
Not sure this really says anything bad about Microsoft. Is it really hard to
imagine an NFL coach losing his temper with something let alone a computer?

~~~
Balgair
Have you watched a Pats game? Belichick is about as wordy as a granite
counter-top in game and is like a cemetery in front of journalists. That he
bothered to complain, let alone did some much to reporters, indicates that
there are VERY big problems with them.

~~~
freehunter
And the fact that he previously said there were issues but he was trying to
work through them, then years later decided he couldn't deal with it anymore
speaks volumes. He actually did give it a shot, for years, and it never got
better.

------
6stringmerc
On the one hand, it's a reasoned, eloquent, logical gripe about technology not
functioning as intended for its target audience, an NFL head coach.

On the other hand, this is Bill Belichick doing the talking, so I take the
bulk of his complaints about the communications equipment with a healthy dose
of skepticism. If you're not familiar with Mr. Belichick, he's earned the
reputation of being worthy of suspicion when it comes to either exploiting a
loophole in the rules or potentially breaking them outright and trying to
explain them away[1]. A quick search[2] dredges up numerous cases of NFL teams
visiting Gillette Stadium and experiencing significant communications system
difficulties.

So, the cynic in me would like to pose a tentative solution to Bill: If his
team would shut off whatever jammers and bullshit disruption devices they're
using on the visiting opponents, maybe his equipment wouldn't fuck up as much
either.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_England_Patriots_vide...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_England_Patriots_videotaping_controversy)

[2]
[https://www.google.com/search?q=radio+trouble+gillette+stadi...](https://www.google.com/search?q=radio+trouble+gillette+stadium+nfl&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

~~~
mikey_p
I'm not saying it's impossible (given the history with on field equipment –
aka deflategate), but it's seems highly unlikely given that the NFL hires RF
specialists with spectrum analyzers and direction finding equipment just to
hunt down unauthorized transmissions at games.

~~~
turnip123942
The broad scientific consensus is that the deflation of the balls occurred
naturally and there was no foul-play involved.

[0][http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/10/04/tom-brady-deflategate-
ideal...](http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/10/04/tom-brady-deflategate-ideal-gas-
law)

[1][http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2016/03/12/deflate-gate-
scienc...](http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2016/03/12/deflate-gate-science-
goodell)

[2][https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/culture-
beaker/deflategate-...](https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/culture-
beaker/deflategate-favored-foul-play-over-science)

[3][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwxXsEltyas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwxXsEltyas)

[4][http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2016/05/27/scientists-
file-a...](http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2016/05/27/scientists-file-amicus-
brief-tom-brady/)

