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.
RIP Tom Brady's Surface tablet pic.twitter.com/drpqSo1Ul0
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 18, 2022
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
“Breaking the Surface” seems to have worked. If he’s superstitious, he’ll smash one before every game from now on.
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
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.
I like how the announcer describes it as a "child-proof rubber padding". :D Big baby.