Cleveland Browns

Microsoft defends tablet: Not even Johnny Manziel's head can break it

Published Jan. 26, 2016 6:06 p.m. ET

foxsports

On Monday, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said technical issues with the Microsoft Surface tablets used on the sideline are a "pretty common problem." Needless to say, Microsoft does not agree.

Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and Devices group, defended the Surface Pro 3 tablets in a blog post on the company's site. He pointed to a network issue as the culprit for the brief outage on the Patriots sideline during Sunday's AFC Championship Game loss in Denver, while also pointing out that there hasn't been a single failure in the two years that the tablets have been in use. Then he offered a humorous testimonial for the Surface's ability to withstand abuse on the sideline:

"The now infamous clips of Johnny Manziel and Aaron Rogers [sic] abusing their Surface devices are further evidence of two things: 1) players are getting information faster, even if they don’t always like what they see and 2) these devices were built to endure just about anything, even Johnny Manziel’s head."

As seen in this clip from earlier in the season, Manziel gave his head more than a few whacks with one of the tablets. While Mehdi may have a point regarding the Surface's durability, it sounds like Belichick wouldn't mind a return to the old way photos on paper.