What Tablet Does The NFL Use?

Technology has come a long way since the National Football League (NFL) was founded in 1920, and in that time, it's embraced things like television, tablets, and (most recently) AI for expanding football's reach, fan engagement, and player safety. You've probably noticed coaches, players, and staff looking over tablets on the sidelines during games as they plan and prepare for the next play. These are Microsoft Surface tablets that are configured for and provided to teams since 2014 as part of an ongoing partnership between the NFL and the tech giant.

In the past, players and coaches used black-and-white printed photos quickly assembled into binders to examine plays, a tedious and inefficient process that went on until 2013. In contrast, the Surface tablets can quickly deliver high-quality images while allowing coaches to send annotations and notes in real-time between those up in the coach's booth and down on the sidelines.

Providing the entire league with tablets ensures all teams are on a level playing field, technologically speaking. The devices are distributed before each game, collected afterwards, and locked up when not in use. They cannot be used to surf the internet or download apps that could allow one team to gain an advantage. The NFL's approach to technology has been cautious but evolving, and it recently received a major upgrade.

Going into the 2025 season, Microsoft provided the NFL with 2,500 Surface Copilot + PCs customized to endure rough game conditions with temperature, glare, and drop resistance. More significant than rugged design and improved specs are the tablet's AI capabilities and features that change the way coaches and players view games and sort through information.

Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant can easily locate clips using filters and assist those in the booth with analyzing data from Excel spreadsheets to gain important insights. The tablets also play a key role in player safety. Not only do they allow trainers to easily access players' medical information, they also contain a concussion assessment app that can help determine whether a player has a head injury. AI is also good at spotting unsafe plays, giving the league the information necessary to make changes or improve equipment. However, there's one key thing that NFL teams can't use their Surface tablets' AI for: calling plays. As Microsoft partnership manager Thomas Labuzienski told GeekWire, "We're not using AI and technology to make decisions for [the coaches, players, and staff]. They're the experts. They know what they're trying to do."

Outside games, the NFL uses Copilot and other Microsoft 365 features to automate and streamline time-consuming tasks like sorting through data and spotting trends and generating reports. It's also simplified data entry, particularly for logging incidents like malfunctioning tech or issues with equipment. NFL scouts and coaches have also used Microsoft's AI programs to gather team-shaping insights on prospective players.

While Microsoft Copilot integration doesn't seem to have had negative impacts on the NFL's 2025-26 season, the same can't be said about tablets and AI in other leagues. Major League Baseball (MLB) — partnered with Apple since 2016 — banned the use of AI to make strategic decisions during games after it was discovered that teams were using dugout iPads to access programs that determined things like ideal pitches and substitutions.

Former relief pitcher Adam Ottavino claimed the New York Mets (a team he played for between 2022 and 2024) were the main reason for the crackdown, though a report from The Athletic indicates that up to a third of the league was using similar AI tools. In spite of the ban, MLB found that all teams were in compliance with the league's policies. By contrast, sports leagues have begun wholeheartedly embracing AI use for help with officiating games. In an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show," National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner Adam Silver predicted his league will eventually use AI to automate clear calls like a ball going out of bounds, leaving more complicated matters to human referees.

MLB introduced a similar program for the 2026 season called the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System. When a player challenges a strike-zone judgment, the technology makes a definitive call, which also makes challenges a strategic risk. These are just some of the ways that artificial intelligence has reshaped how sports are played and consumed, and it's clearly just the beginning.