Super Bowl XLVII: Tonight The Ravens' Playbook Is An iPad
The Baltimore Ravens have launched themselves into the future with a massive chop-down of the traditional binder full of plays for this Super Bowl Sunday, relying instead on the Apple iPad and the Gameplan mobile playbook environment. While this isn't the first time an NFL team has adopted the iPad specifically as their new locker room go-to device for time-out planning, tonight the developers at Global Apptitude LCC will be put to the test: it's Gameplan to the rescue!
With Gameplan, the Ravens are able to take their iPads and view their entire book of plays in both shorthand and with video demonstrations from previous games. Coaches are able to play back events the same game in which they happened, review the first half of the game before the second begins, and transmit any and all information they've got to the whole of the team with a tap.
This system has been in use for quite a while – according to the Wall Street Journal, former Baltimore Ravens man Chuch Pagano asked that his new team (the Indianapolis Colts) begin using digital playbooks immediately after joining up with them in 2012. Director of football information systems for the Colts Ryan Fannin let it be known that 90 iPads were handed to players and 20 iPads were given to coaches at the start of this season.
One must assume the system works for at least one team as the Ravens and none other than linebacker Ray Lewis hit the Mercedes-Benz Superdome tonight. And it's not just Gameplan (by Global Apptitude) that's been used this year – according to ESPN, the group known as PlayerLync is currently providing iPad-based digital playbook services to the Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, and San Diego Chargers. For the Ravens, it's all about Gameplan.
As Co-Founder and CTO of Global Apptitude Jeff Teles lets us know, a quarter of the NFL is currently using GamePlan. These teams are as follows: Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks, St. Louis Rams, Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, and the Indianapolis Colts. Teles also made note that the Baltimore Ravens were, in fact, the first team in the NFL to implement iPads.
We also had a brief chat with Co-founder of Global Apptitude Randy Fusee this weekend where he made clear that, "the Baltimore Ravens user our Gameplan technology to prepare their players to play each week." He went on to note that their app "brigs scouting reports, game plans, playbooks, and film study to each players' iPad and allows for real time communications and collaboration between coaches and players." Below you'll see a report from FoxNashville where the app can be seen in-use.
Now we wait to see if the 49ers reveal any usage of digital solutions such as these in the Big Game as well. While you're waiting for that answer, get pumped up and prepared for tonight with our lovely Super Bowl 2013 streaming video sources guide, including a fabulous set of iPad apps, if that's what you're all about.