Tom Brady destroys Surface tablet on the sidelines instead of opposing defense on the field

What you need to know

• NFL quarterback Tom Brady destroyed a Surface tablet on the sidelines of a game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints.
• Surface devices are used to study game film and still images to improve in-game performance.
• Brady scored zero points for the first time in 15 years.

Tom Brady is one of the most successful NFL quarterbacks of all time, but no one is perfect. Last night, while being shut out (scoring zero points within a game) for the first time in 15 years, Brady took his frustration out on a Microsoft Surface tablet.

The future hall of fame quarterback grabbed a Surface device — one that appeared to have already been damaged — in frustration and threw it at a trunk. Considering Brady's throwing inaccuracy throughout the game, it's difficult to tell where he intended to toss the tablet. There's a chance that he was trying to get it to a teammate.

Brady may have picked up the tendency to destroy Microsoft hardware from his former head coach Bill Belichick, who has criticized the tablets in the past. Belichick has also thrown Surface devices on the sidelines, though his form was more like a spike by Rob Gronkowski than a toss by Brady.

Microsoft has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to have NFL teams use Surface hardware on the sidelines. The tablets are used to review game film and to show still images for in-game study. The partnership has run into bumps in the past, including many calling the Surface devices iPads.

Earlier this year, Brian Hall shared the story of Microsoft's partnership with the NFL surrounding the Surface tablets in a series of tweets. Hall now works at Google but spent over 20 years at Microsoft. Hall runs through the risk that Microsoft took pursuing the partnership and how people calling Surface devices iPads ultimately was a good thing.