Kellen Moore is 27 years old and well-versed in how to use and apply today's technology in his everyday life. But the Dallas Cowboys backup quarterback remains old-school when it comes to football.
Moore gladly carries around a hard copy of the playbook, and always asks for printouts after games.
"I like to take notes and do that sort of thing, so I can review it later," Moore said. "Writing it down is another way of learning it for me. I prefer it that way, but I'm sure there are some guys who have never done that, especially now with the tablets."
Count second-year safety Byron Jones among the players who have fully embraced the tablet computer era.
Jones remembers carrying around a big binder containing the playbook during his playing days at UConn, but is more than happy to have all the information so easily accessible.
"I like the change," Jones said. "I'll take it any day of the week."
The technological advancements have changed game days, too. The NFL and Microsoft entered into an agreement before the 2014 season to have Surface tablets on every sideline, aimed at replacing and advancing the black-and-white printouts of years past.
The tablets are weather proof and provide still photos from various angles for coaches and players. The league experimented with tablets allowing video during last seasons Pro Bowl, but a proposal to include video for the upcoming season was tabled in May at a quarterly meeting.
Instead, teams will only have access to photos in the upcoming season. But the NFL is among the more advanced leagues in sports. The NHL allows teams to use tablets for in-game replays, and MLB just started allowing teams to use iPads in the dugouts this season for both analytics and replays. The NBA doesn't allow coaches to use tablets or computers during games.
Having an instantaneous way of viewing plays is something that has changed the way the game is managed. Coaches are better equipped to adjust game plans on the spot and during halftime.
It's simply a continuation in how the sport has evolved with the changing times.
Gil Brandt has been around the game since 1960, serving as the Cowboys' vice president of player personnel from 1960-89 and is now an analyst on NFL.com.
Brandt remembers the days when teams had to rely on coaches in the press box to break down plays, and communicate it to the sidelines via telephone.
"Somebody would call down and say, 'On this last play, this is what they did,'" Brandt said. "You'd get on the chalkboard and show a quarterback on the interception they threw or whatever it was, what it was. Sometimes it was correct. Sometimes it wasn't."
Eventually, the NFL grew to include the black-and-white photos that were printed on the sideline and now to the almost instantaneous breakdowns via tablets.
"The first thing a quarterback does if he throws an interception or a touchdown after he shakes hands and congratulates guys, is goes and sits down and immediately starts looking at what just happened on that play and what was presented to him by the defense," Brandt said. "We used to say the day after in the film room, 'Gosh, I wish we would've done this.' Now you say it on the spot. They have the capability of doing it then and there."
Most of the time, that is. The tablets have been known to experience issues at times.
When the Cowboys visited the Washington Redskins last December, for instance, their tablets didn't work and they couldn't access the old-fashioned photos because of what the NFL called a power issue. The Redskins, however, were still using them despite the equity rule that requires both teams to play under the same circumstances.
The moment served as a reminder that sometimes the oldest way of doing it _ coaches in the press box describing what they saw _ is still valuable.
As Garrett said afterward, "What you have to do [in that situation] is communicate really, really well what is going on. The guys upstairs have the best vantage points of fronts, coverages, and different looks that we are seeing, so they have to do a good job at taking and writing that stuff down because you don't have the opportunity to go back and see the pictures or see the stuff you would typically see on the tablets."
A similar scenario surfaced during the AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos. The Patriots' tablets were malfunctioning in the first half, but not the Broncos.
Outside of some malfunctioning issues, the tablets have carried the NFL into the digital age. But, as Brandt pointed out, the information isn't anything new from what teams did in the past. It's just more instantaneous.
"The defense knows what the offense is doing. The offense knows what the defense is doing," Brandt said. "Now it's who executes it best is the team that's going to win."
Brandt pointed to a game early in the 1963 season against the Cowboys and Cleveland Browns. Cowboys coach Tom Landry knew the Browns would hand the ball off to Jim Brown much of the game.
Even with that knowledge, the Cowboys weren't able to slow down the future Hall of Fame running back. Brown rushed for 232 yards on 20 carries with two touchdowns in Cleveland's 41-24 victory over Dallas on Sept. 22, 1963.
"It's like Pandora's box," Brandt said.
Brandt shared another story about preparation for the 1977 draft. The Cowboys had traded for the second overall pick, and Brandt wanted them to take Pittsburgh running back Tony Dorsett. Another Cowboys scout, former NFL player and coach Red Hickey, preferred USC's Ricky Bell.
"When you think who do you want your information from, Red Hickey who played and coached in the NFL? Or Gil Brandt, who never played or coached in the NFL?" Brandt said, chuckling. "But I had this big book of probabilities and we could tell you by a grade what chance you had of being an All-Pro, a Pro Bowler, a starter, a strong starter, a backup, so forth and so on.
"The most important characteristic for a running back was quickness. We looked at quickness and Ricky Bell had a zero percent chance of being All-Pro, and Tony Dorsett had a 79 percent chance. Ricky Bell had a 3 percent chance of being a Pro Bowler and Tony Dorsett had a 100 percent chance. About the third category, Red Hickey said, 'Stop ... I bow to machine."
The "machine" paid off. Dorsett has a bust in Canton, Ohio, while Bell lasted six seasons and had one 1,000-yard rushing season in a career cut short because of medical issues.
So as much as things seem to change, some things have just been applied differently.
As Brandt said, "The bottom line is _ for picking players, for game preparations _ you're able to do a much better job and do it much more quickly and efficiently. There are just so many variables, it's unbelievable.
"We evaluated players on the same characteristics as they do today, but the difference is the weighted value of those characteristics is different today than it was then. And it'll probably be different next season than it was last season because we pass the ball more, we spread the field and we do all these things.
"But it doesn't give the offense or defense as much of an advantage as you would think because now everybody has it."
