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NFL's Johnny Manziel endorses Microsoft's Surface like no one else

Technically Incorrect: You've seen NFL teams do all kinds of things with Microsoft's tablet hybrid. But not this.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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The Surface passes one of the great torture tests.

SB Nation/Twitter screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Microsoft and the NFL have so far enjoyed a relationship as smooth as Sid and Nancy's.

After Redmond struck a reported $400 million deal in 2013 with the NFL to have its Surfaces exclusively on team sidelines, announcers referred to them as "iPads."

It's taken education as well as, I imagine, aggressive mastication in order to embed the Surface as something known and properly named during NFL games.

On Sunday, the Surface saw its finest hour.

It was during the utterly lamentable game between the hapless Cleveland Browns and the witless San Francisco 49ers that controversial Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, aka Johnny Football, clutched his Surface with some frustration.

Clearly, plays had been busted. These plays were featured in graphic detail on the Surface. This led to Manziel attempting to bust the Surface on his head. Repeatedly.

The action was thankfully captured by SB Nation and displayed on Twitter for all to see. I had it on loop for at least four hours.

Here is Manziel banging the device repeatedly, rhythmically against his head for a beautiful eternity. This was truly the most rhythm the Browns offense has shown all season. And to think they were actually winning at the time.

What seems evident is that, like the finest of linebackers and the most resilient of defensive ends, the Surface took the blows and did it its way.

This surely proves that this device is durable and can be productive even in the hands of the most legendary dunderheads. (If you're unfamiliar with Manziel's wayward ways, please Google "Johnny Manziel apologizes" or "Manziel needs to behave better.")

Microsoft's efforts to advertise the Surface have generally been anodyne.

I cannot imagine, therefore, that the company could itself have created an advertisement better than this, even if its whole creative team had bashed the devices on their heads for the next year.