Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » National Football League

This Year’s Super Bowl Can Be Streamed On The Internet and Mobile Devices

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:03:20 +0000

The Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, and NBC’s wild-card playoff games will be streamed on the Internet and on mobile devices for the first time announced the NFL yesterday. The games can be streamed online on NBCSports.com and NFL.com through SNF Extra, which has an HD broadcast, DVR-style controls, additional camera angles, highlights, live stats, and other interactive features.

NBCSports.com and the NFL has been streaming games since 2008 with SNF Extra, but this is the first time that playoff games will be streamed.

“We don’t want to limit ourselves to people not in front of the TV,” stated NFL VP of NBC Sports Digital Media Rick Cordella. NFL Mobile from Verizon will stream the broadcasts for the first time on a mobile platform. The Super Bowl is on February 5 in Indianapolis.

NFL Team Tampa Bay Buccaneers Hands Out iPads To 90 Players

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:52:13 +0000

The NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers has handed out iPads to each of the team’s 90 players as a new type of playbook. This is different from the massive amounts of printed out documents put together by each team for plays. The Buccaneers will be able to view the team playbook, refer to game footage, and review videos of their opponents on the iPad.

The advantage of using the iPad as a playbook is that if it is stolen, the playbook data can be deleted remotely. And another advantage is that players no longer need to ask for a DVD to review game footage at home.

Coach Raheem Morris said that it took only two minutes to convince Buccaneers chairman Bryan Glazer to spend $500-$600 for each iPad. Earlier this month, United Airlines equipped pilots with iPads for viewing plane operating manuals.

[Mashable]

Former Facebook & YouTube CFO Gideon Yu Leaves Khosla To Become CSO Of The San Francisco 49ers

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:53:34 +0000

Gideon Yu is one of the most prolific investors and executives in the technology sector. He is currently serving as a General Partner at Khosla Ventures, but he will soon become the Chief Strategy Officer for the NFL San Francisco 49ers. Before that he was the Chief Financial Officer of both Facebook and YouTube. Yu also worked as a partner at Sequoia Capital.

Before YouTube, Yu worked as the Treasurer and Senior Vice President of Finance at Yahoo! When at Facebook, he oversaw the $375 million investment round from Microsoft and Li Ka Shing. At YouTube, he negotiated the $1.65 billion sale to Google. And at Yahoo!, he oversaw more than 30 acquisitions and investments including Alibaba.com, Overture, Flickr, and Delicious.

During his stint with Khosla Ventures, he put together investment rounds in Square, Meebo, and Hunch. Yu will remain on the board at Square and Meebo. Yu is leaving Khosla because he said that venture capital isn’t really for him.

[BusinessInsider]

Super Bowl Hit 111 Million Viewers, The Most Watched TV Event In History

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 22:55:23 +0000

The National Football League broke the record for the most amount of viewers ever. Super Bowl XLV drew 111 million viewers, which broke last year’s viewers of 106.5 million. That means that this year’s Super Bowl is the most-watched TV event in U.S. history. [TV Line]

Apple iPad May Replace NFL Play books, Saving 5,000 Pages Of Paper Per Game

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:26:27 +0000

Pete Walsh, the head of technology for the NFL Dallas Cowboys, said that his team and a couple others are considering replacing play books printed on paper with the Apple iPad. This could end up saving 5,000 pages of paper printouts per game. It may be difficult to convince coaches to replace the traditional play books in favor of a glossy screen gadget. One of the league’s primary concern is security. How would it be handled if an iPad with intellectual property football plays end up in the enemy’s hands? Would remotely wiping out the data be good enough? Walsh reports to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. [CNET]

Foursquare Adding Promoted Venue And Badge For Super Bowl

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:54:59 +0000

Geo-location check-in service Foursquare is adding a “promoted trending venue” and badge redemption for the Super Bowl. Foursquare is making this venue available for all of their users, meaning that it is not actually a real venue — it is an event.

“We thought the NFL would be the perfect partner to try this out for the first time since there’s such a huge sense of community around Super Bowl viewing,” said Foursquare spokeswoman Erin Gleason. Foursquare is not making any money from this deal.

If you shout the name of the team you are rooting for, you will get a badge for that team — either a Packers badge or a Steelers badge. You will also get a redemption code that would give you a 20% discount on NFLShop.com merchandise.

This Is The Banned Super Bowl Ashley Madison Commercial [VIDEO]

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 06:58:01 +0000

Given the sexual content that is often displayed in GoDaddy.com’s Super Bowl ads, I figured it would be very hard to get a commercial banned from air-time. Apparently Ashley Madison, a website where people can meet who are interested in having an affair, has crossed the line. Fox has banned the above commercial from airing during this year’s Super Bowl. This commercial stars adult film star Savanna Samson.

Tim Tebow Creates A Social Media Presence

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:55:52 +0000

Tim Tebow is a quarterback that plays for the Denver Broncos in the National Football League. He played college football at Florida and won the Heisman Trophy. Now the prominent athlete has decided to create a social media presence.

Tebow has created a Twitter account (@TimTebow), a Facebook fan page for the Tim Tebow Foundation, and launched his own website: TimTebow.com. Tebow has over 21,000 Twitter followers so far and the Tim Tebow Facebook Fan Page has surpassed 30,000 people already.

San Diego Chargers Athlete Shawne Merriman Suing Tila Tequila

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:22:50 +0000

San Diego Charges football player Shawne Merriman is suing Tila Tequila, citing that she lied and damaged his reputation. At the U.S. District Court, Merriman claimed that Tequila posted lies on her website about how he beat her up.

Tequila’s website claims that Merriman “choked and attacked her.” Tequila also claimed that Merriman “sleeps with minors and forces them to take drugs.” Merriman is not suing Tequila for defamation. Instead he is suing her for intentional interference with contract, trademark infringement, and unfair competition.

Shawne was arrested on September 6 and the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Internet Celebrity Tila Tequila Claims To Be Assaulted By San Diego Chargers Player Shawne Merriman

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:05:52 +0000

Tila Tequila, best known for her MTV show “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila” started her career as being a popular MySpace user. She then transitioned into a power Twitter user. She currently has over 242,000 followers on Twitter and has almost 4 million MySpace friends.

Tequila reported on her MySpace page that she was in San Diego, but she apparently called the police to inform them that NFL San Diego Charges player Shawne Merriman assaulted and choked her. Merriman denied the claim. Tequila wrote on her Twitter profile “The truth will set you free…..God is with me” since the incident took place.

Tequila signed a citizen’s arrest and was later transferred to a hospital. Merriman was taken into custody by the police based on suspicion of battery and false imprisonment. Tila Tequila also known as Tila Nguyen reported on Sunday that she was home safe again.

Merriman’s lawyer Todd Macaluso said that Nguyen was “extremely intoxicated and inebriated” during the incident and that Merriman tried to arrange her to leave the house. Since the incident, Tila has not been tweeting much. Ian Corbin of CelebrityTweet said that he is not surprised because a legal team is probably telling her not to say much.