Miami Dolphins Join iPad Based Teams

The Miami Dolphins have joined the group of teams, including the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals, who are turning to Apple's iPad to maintain playbooks and let players keep up with game film, according to a South Florida Sun Sentinel report (as as Ryan Tannehill stated in the video interview with SB Nation, which you can watch below). All 90 training camp bound players have been issued the tablets, and the team will continually update the material on them.

The Dolphins coaching staff has direct ties to both the Packers (head coach Joe Philbin) and the Bengals (defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle).

"We went from a playbook that's about five inches thick to an iPad. It's definitely a transition, exciting," explained rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill. "It's a tool we can use, makes it a lot more [easy] to carry around and study."

Philbin, meanwhile, acknowledged he is a little more old school than the players. "I've still got my notebook and pencil, and a big thick three-ring binder," Philbin stated. "For the players it is so much easier for them. It's tougher for an old coach, but the guys are flipping through that stuff and pushing buttons. Teaching wise it was the best thing to do."

The team has made sure the players know the rules about their new toys, including taking it with them to all meetings, don't download things, and, above all, don't lose it. The team will monitor all activity on the iPads, and violations will reportedly cost $10,000.

Coach Philbin stated it pretty clearly, though, that there's more on the line than just some money, when it comes to how the players use the iPads. "If our guys are sitting in meetings and playing a bunch of music or going on ProFootballTalk.com we're not going to be very good," Philbin said. "We're going to find guys who love football, love their job, and want to be good. If we have to police that type of stuff it is going to be tough to win games."