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Tom Brady chucks Microsoft Surface for another incomplete pass

After several incomplete passes in a row, Tom Brady again took out his frustrations on a Microsoft Surface tablet on Sunday.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers overcame a seven-game losing streak against the New Orleans Saints during the game on September 18, with a final score of 20-10. Four of those games happened since Brady joined the Buccaneers in 2020.

Most of the scoring done by the Buccaneers happened in the fourth quarter. During the third quarter, a clearly frustrated Brady threw a Surface tablet to the ground as his team still hadn't scored by that point.

The team ultimately prevailed, and Brady apologized in a video on Twitter for breaking the tablet.

This isn't the first time a Surface tablet fell victim to an angry team member. In 2016, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick punted one from the sidelines, saying that Microsoft's tablets were undependable. Brady has destroyed at least one other after a series of bad plays as well.

Microsoft paid $400 million to the NFL in 2014 for the exclusive rights to have its Surface tablets be the only devices used during games. However, the change wasn't popular, and the tablets were called iPads by announcers on more than one occasion.

On one occasion in 2016, the Surface tablets stopped working altogether during a game, with Microsoft citing network issues.

Years after its launch in 2012, the Surface line of tablets still don't have much brand awareness, with CNN calling it a "Microsoft tablet" during its report on the game. Apple's iPads dominate in branding, and the name has become a generic term for most tablets by people outside of the tech world.



6 Comments

retrogusto 16 Years · 1140 comments

“Breaking the Surface” seems to have worked. If he’s superstitious, he’ll smash one before every game from now on.

dewme 10 Years · 5775 comments

I wonder what the Surface did to provoke such a violent attack? Did it blue screen when he was trying to see whether his game check had been deposited into his checking account, you know just in case he was looking forward to ordering an extra taco at Taco Bell on his way home? Nothing worse than the anxiety of not knowing whether your ATM withdrawal will come up short before you head to the Taco Bell drive-thru, especially when you're hoping to upgrade from the $1.16 regular taco to the $1.69 taco supreme you feel you absolutely deserve if you can win the game. Taco upgrade anxiety can lead a man to madness, or at least to throwing a big ol' hissy fit (BOHF) on national television, and it's certainly not something you want to mess around with. Give the guy some space.

On a lighter note, I wonder if Microsoft employees hold little funerals for all these Surface devices that are violently killed in action? You know, like the funeral they performed for the iPhone, which was neither dead nor in any danger of being harmed by anything Microsoft was capable of doing.

KTR 4 Years · 280 comments

Hmmmm, reminds me of the time Microsoft took a $900,000,000 hit for unsold surface pro.  They never learn.  Can you imagine if apple made iOS lite, that can run on none apple hardware.  Possibilities are endless…..lol

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2013-jul-18-la-fi-tn-microsoft-unsold-surfaces-20130718-story.html

racerhomie3 7 Years · 1264 comments

In the 10 years iOS has been used by me on IPhone,iPad and iPod Touch ,they have never failed on me.Only iPod touch battery life was terrible.Windows on the other hand has given me headaches so much on even 700 to 800 dollar hardware, that I switched to Mac.Never looked back.

coolfactor 20 Years · 2341 comments

I like how the announcer describes it as a "child-proof rubber padding".  :D Big baby.