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3rd & Long Has An App: Broncos Switch Playbooks To iPad

The third team in the league to do so, the Broncos will be replacing paper playbooks with the latest model of Apple's iPad
Photo Illustration - Jim Hill
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iPad, Apple / Broncos, Julio Enriquez - Flickr-Creative Commons
The third team in the league to do so, the Broncos will be replacing paper playbooks with the latest model of Apple's iPad

Big upgrades for the Broncos this season: First Peyton Manning, and now the paper playbook. The iPad has been brought in to replace old school papyrus.

The Mac faithful and the Broncos faithful have collided on this one, as both Cult of Mac and the Denver Post reported the news. According to the Denver Post:

"The digital transition will not only save trees but may also give the Broncos a competitive edge. Just two other teams in the National Football League — the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers — have discarded the printed playbook in favor of a tablet and an app."

All new plays are in the 'cloud' now and will be pushed automatically to each tablet - including video and other game day notes.

Don't worry about an intense game of Angry Birds or Words With Friends costing your team the game though. The NFL is banning the device on the sidelines.

Since playbooks are normally hundreds of pages and there's probably no way that the 16GB model could hold plays such as "Green Right Slot Spider 2 Y Banana" the Broncos are opting for the 64GB LTE model.

For the curious, retail is $829 and I've done the math for 120 iPads for the staff. That's $99,480 pre-tax. Which works out to:

  • 0.103625% of Peyton Manning's contract
  • Approximately 994 Wilson Footballs
  • Just about 7.95 Vince Lombardi trophies (handcrafted and purchased from Tiffany & Co, naturally)
I’m not a Colorado native (did you know that "I'm from Missouri" means "I'm skeptical of the matter and not easily convinced?") but I have lived here for most of my life and couldn't imagine leaving. After graduating from Colorado State University, I did what everyone wants to do; I moved to the mountains and skied, hiked, and hid from responsibility! Our listeners in the mountains may know me from my time in Steamboat Springs and Vail or as the voice of the Battle Mountain Huskies Hockey team in Vail.
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