Eddie Perlas / ESPN Images(FOXBOROUGH, Mass.) — Bill Belichick has had it with technology on the football field.
During a press conference Tuesday, the head coach of the New England Patriots launched into a minor tirade against various technologies employed by modern NFL teams, and took particular aim at the Microsoft-built tablets used by the league’s coaches.
The tablets were introduced in the 2014 season, according to the NFL, and allow coaches to analyze plays and make adjustments in real-time during games.
“I’m done with tablets. I’ve given them as much time as I can give them,” Belichick said. “They’re just too undependable for me.”
The coach was responding to a question about technical issues during the Patriots’ 35-17 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
Belichick, who was seen throwing one of the Microsoft Surface tablets earlier this month, said he had gave the tablets their “best shot,” but that he would revert to using paper pictures of plays from here on out.
An NFL spokesman, Alex Riethmiller, said in a statement that “Microsoft is an integral, strategic partner of the NFL and implementing technology on our sidelines has increased the efficiency and speed of collaboration between coaches and players to an all-time high.”
Riethmiller said that the league would continue to work with Microsoft and other partners going forward.
Microsoft did not immediately return ABC News’ request for comment.
Belichick wasn’t only angry with the tablets.
He also said there have been issues in the past with the communications systems that the coaches use to coordinate during games, saying the systems “fail on a regular basis.”
“There are very few games that we play, home or away, day, night, cold, hot, preseason, regular season, post season, it doesn’t make any difference; there are very few games where there aren’t issues in some form or fashion with that equipment,” he noted.
He said that part of the problem stems from the fact that the NFL — and not the teams — own the equipment. The teams are not given the tablets until game day.
Because of this, he said, there is little time to troubleshoot problems and his IT teams have to scramble to resolve issues at the last minute.
“It’s basically a problem every week,” he said.
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