Last night witnessed the much anticipated showdown between Tom Brady's Patriots and Peyton Manning's Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game.
And for the New England Patriots, a disappointing defeat on the pitch was compounded by a technological failure on the sideline.
Similar to most teams in the modern era of sport, the Patriots employ the use of special Tablets to take pictures and video of previous plays in order for them to analyse their own performance as well as study the movements of the opposition.
THE MICOSOFT SURFACE TABLETS ARE FAILING #OMG #patriots pic.twitter.com/wXFahXKnCa
— Lee Flannery (@somethingblewup) January 24, 2016
On Sunday night, the Patriots camp was thrown into disarray when their Microsoft Surface Tablets broke down for a while. It took 20 minutes for officials to fix the problem with the devices, which a Microsoft spokesperson assured was due to a fault 'with the network' rather than the tablets themselves.
Brady and the Patriots went on to lose the crucial game on a final scoreline of 20-18 and while his side are presumably still smarting from the loss, the internet are showing no mercy with jokes about the tablets failure.
And considering the previous rumours which alleged that the Patriots interfered with the an opposing team's headset radios, this could be Karma flexing its muscles.
I loved the Patriots tablets not working. Payback is a bear.
— Mike Preston (@MikePrestonSun) January 24, 2016
Was there just a tablet commercial after they said the tablets were broken for the patriots?
— David Spade (@DavidSpade) January 24, 2016
UPDATE: #Patriots Tablets are working again after Johnny demonstrates the correct way to fix them. https://t.co/bK9XGbuRcg
— Sports Nation Ohio (@SN_Ohio) January 24, 2016
The Patriots’ tablets are now working again. Our brief national nightmare is finally over.
— Bart Hubbuch (@BartHubbuch) January 24, 2016
Don't worry the tablets crashing allows the @Patriots to unleash their secret weapon #TabletGate #NEvsDEN pic.twitter.com/u4dSeq03H5
— Graham Rowlands (@beachrockinc) January 24, 2016
I have obtained an exclusive screenshot of the Patriots' tablets. pic.twitter.com/Jk1ooPwc1l
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 24, 2016
Some #Patriots intern sabotaged the wrong tablets.
— CaptainTouchback (@CaptTouchback) January 24, 2016
Microsoft have a partnership with the NFL in which millions were spent to equip coaching staff, players and announcers with the tablets. Money well spent?
