It’s been more than 30 years since John Madden first used a Telestrator to dissect plays and formations for viewers. Yet as recently as 2013, NFL coaches and players on the sidelines still relied on black-and-white printouts to do essentially the same thing for themselves.

NFL fans are used to seeing players and coaches huddled on the sidelines, strategizing over depictions of their opponents’ formations and tendencies. This scene raised a fairly obvious question: How can a high-tech league still rely on black-and-white printouts? 

The simple answer: The league hadn’t yet found a system that met its rigid standards. 

The NFL’s partnership with Microsoft does that — and more. Already, it has helped teams improve player safety and has enhanced the home-viewing experience.

The league is moving away from the days when a printer behind a team’s bench spit out black-and-white snapshots, transmitted via fiber optic cables and quickly assembled in binders by team “runners” for coaches and players to view. 

Starting in the 2014 season, all teams have sideline access to league-provided, specially configured Microsoft Surface tablets, on which they receive high-resolution color images almost instantaneously.

The Sideline Viewing System app lets coaches zoom in, make annotations, review plays and tag 'favorites' for later review. As with the old system — but in a more immediate, flexible and efficient way — teams use the information to adjust play-calling and instruct their players as the game unfolds.

When using the Sideline Viewing System, coaches can more easily look at plays from earlier in the game. And they get access to the photo at least 30 seconds faster, which can prove invaluable for making adjustments on the fly.

Microsoft and the NFL remain committed to driving innovation. In 2025, devices on the sidelines and in the coaches’ booth were upgraded to Surface Copilot+PCs, delivering faster performance, longer battery life, and native AI capabilities. New AI-powered filtering let’s users quickly find key moments in real-time—reducing manual searches, accelerating reviews, and highlighting pivotal plays like scoring drives, turnovers, and penalties. These enhancements build on the current sideline viewing experience, ensuring seamless integration while unlocking faster insights and more informed game-time decisions.

TABLETS TOUGH ENOUGH FOR THE NFL

The league takes technological changes very seriously. Any change must improve the game and work reliably, and it cannot favor one team over another. With these demands in mind, Microsoft worked closely with the NFL and its Competition Committee to make sure that the Surface tablets were up to the task.

Microsoft customized off-the-shelf Surface Copilot + PCs to meet the league’s demands: They had to withstand heat, cold, rain and glare, so they were rigorously tested and modified until fit for game action. (For example, each has an attached stylus so staff and players wearing gloves during cold weather can use the device.)

Above all else, the tablets needed to be ready for both teams at a moment’s notice. They had to be able to stand up to the occasional drop, hold a charge through an entire game and flawlessly connect to the stadium’s network through which data is transmitted.

The tablets are identically configured; teams cannot access the Internet or install any app or feature that might give them a competitive edge. The league locks the tablets away until just before kickoff and collects them as soon as the game ends.

DATA ANALYTICS DASHBOARD

In the coaches booth, a Microsoft 365 Copilot-powered Excel dashboard helps club analysts identify actionable insights faster to influence game strategies. The data analytics dashboard supports real-time evaluation of offensive and defensive personnel groupings, snap counts, play results, yards gained, and probability percentages to forecast play success. Microsoft 365 Copilot enhances the dashboard by assisting with formula creation, data visualization, and improved data types, allowing analysts to efficiently interpret complex datasets during high pressure situations.