The Microsoft Surface tablets on NFL sidelines — a game-day fixture since 2014 — got a close-up on national television Wednesday night, with NBC highlighting new AI-powered workflows debuting in the Seattle Seahawks’ season opener.

During the broadcast, NBC play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico pointed out the new Surface devices — clad in Action Green cases, no less — in the Seattle coaches’ box above Lumen Field.

Tirico said Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald’s staff, including Brian Eayrs, the director of football analysis and special situations, now has direct access to Microsoft Copilot in real time. The broadcast showcased how the AI assistant is being layered onto sideline hardware to deliver instant data insights and help coaches make faster strategy adjustments.

“They can make sharper calls between series,” Tirico said. “So Copilot is going to give them a little bit more of an opportunity to do some real-time stuff on these tablets as the season goes on.”

It all amounted to a pretty good 40-second ad placement for Microsoft. Coupled with mentions of Next Gen Stats — powered by Amazon Web Services — it was a good night for Cloud City tech giants.

The technology and Eayrs are also featured in a video that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shared on X earlier in the day.

With the @NFL back tonight, love seeing @Seahawks analyst Brian Eayrs and coaches across the league using new Copilot and Excel tools to help with decision making in the booths and on the sidelines. pic.twitter.com/PbHugcbLIJ

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) September 9, 2026

GeekWire got an early look at Microsoft’s expanding tech suite back in April during a demonstration at Lumen Field. While the rugged Surface tablets on the sidelines remain the most visible hardware, Microsoft showed how Copilot is being integrated deeper into coaching workflows — from custom pre-game templates to running real-time analyses on formation tendencies, snap counts, and player load mid-game.

The core promise of the tech isn’t replacing human judgment — it’s raw speed. In a booth setup like Eayrs’, dedicated analysts use a real-time Excel dashboard that ingests live play-by-play data directly from the NFL. Using Copilot, they can instantly query formation tendencies or player usage metrics on the fly without building complex formulas by hand during the game.

The output from the booth can then be communicated down to the sideline, where coaches and players review still photos and quick situational data on their handheld tablets between drives.

To maintain competitive integrity, the NFL strictly regulates how and when these devices operate.

Under league rules, sideline and booth tablets run on a closed, league-controlled network with no internet access or custom third-party apps allowed. The hardware is locked away by league officials until right before kickoff, collected immediately after the game, and monitored under the NFL’s “Equity Rule.”

If one team’s tech setup fails, the opposing team’s access is restricted or paused to ensure neither side gets an unfair advantage.

The willingness to embrace real-time AI lines up directly with Macdonald’s overarching coaching philosophy.

Macdonald, who previously welcomed being called a “football nerd,” told GeekWire last year that his approach is all about “old school principles, new school methods,” emphasizing that earlier data delivery helps drive better decisions.

“I think it’s cool to be into stuff that is high-tech, data-driven,” Macdonald said at the time. “You’re telling me you’re smart and you’re trying to find edges and trying to find new frontier — that’s cool to me. It sounds like a winning formula.”

Macdonald, who has a Super Bowl ring to show for his coaching style, also called himself a “psycho data guy” who needs “numbers and tendencies” in another interview last year.

Did Copilot and AI provide an edge on Wednesday night?

Macdonald and his analytics team will have to answer to that, but the Seahawks defense certainly made the ultimate call when it mattered most — sealing a 13-10 victory over the New England Patriots with a last-second interception.

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: The NBA suspends former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for a year and hits the Clippers with $30 million in fines and five lost draft picks over allegedly sham endorsement deals for Kawhi Leonard, drawing comparisons to the Microsoft antitrust era.

A new Redfin report says San Francisco’s housing market is booming on AI wealth while Seattle slumps, with the Bay Area-to-Seattle migration pipeline nearly dried up.

And the Seahawks sale to the Khosla family officially closes, ending the Paul Allen era, with two familiar Seattle tech names surfacing in the new ownership group.

Plus, the return of the GeekWire Trivia Challenge.

Related Stories and Links

Ballmer / Clippers

• NBA suspends Steve Ballmer for 1 year, fines L.A. Clippers $30M over salary-cap scheme
• NBA announces penalties and findings arising from investigation of LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard — NBA
• Read the NBA’s Report on Clippers, Kawhi Leonard, and Aspiration — Front Office Sports
• NBA announces punishments for Clippers after Kawhi inquiry — ESPN
• The Briefcase, Ballmer’s Social Network and Aspiration’s House of Cards: Kawhi-Gate Part VII — Pablo Torre Finds Out

Redfin / SF vs. Seattle housing

• AI wealth fuels San Francisco’s housing boom while tech layoffs weigh down Seattle
• Uber laying off 93 Washington state workers, hitting engineer and management roles at Seattle office
• Qualtrics cut 117 jobs tied to Seattle headquarters, new filing shows

Seahawks sale

• Two familiar Seattle tech figures turn up on Seahawks co-owner list as sale is finalized
• ‘I’m the 12th man … I want to represent that’: New Seahawks co-owner with deep Seattle tech roots
• What to know about Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley legend whose family is buying the Seahawks
• Apptio co-founders reunite to launch enterprise AI startup Thira with $21M in funding led by Madrona

Editor’s note: Join us on Wednesday, Sept. 16 for a live recording of the GeekWire podcast. Co-hosts John Cook and Todd Bishop will discuss the week’s news and interview Zillow’ Senior Vice President of engineering, Toby Roberts, about how AI is changing the real estate business. Details and tickets here.

Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Sunny Gupta has been a diehard Seattle Seahawks fan for almost 20 years, hosting tailgates and sitting in the exact same club-level seats with his family and friends since 2007. Now, the longtime Seattle tech entrepreneur is taking his place in the franchise’s new ownership group as a self-described “fan No. 1.”

With the sale of the team to the family of Silicon Valley billionaire investor Vinod Khosla finalized on Thursday, Gupta’s name appeared on a newly revealed list of co-owners. Nader Naini, managing partner at Seattle-based healthcare private equity firm Frazier Healthcare Partners, is also among the group.

For Gupta, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up — and a dream come true.

“I would have never considered investing or being in ownership in sports other than the Seahawks,” Gupta told GeekWire in an interview following Thursday’s announcement. “This is a dream come true of something I love so much. The city I love so much, fan base, the team.

“I’m the 12th man,” he added. “I want to represent that as a part of the ownership group.”

Gupta is best known in Pacific Northwest tech circles as the co-founder and former CEO of Bellevue-based enterprise software maker Apptio, which he guided through an IPO, a private equity buyout, and an eventual $4.6 billion sale to IBM in 2023. He recently served as executive chair at Smartsheet during its $8.4 billion acquisition, and earlier this summer launched his fourth venture-backed startup, an enterprise AI company called Thira, with $21 million in seed funding.

But fall Sundays are strictly about football for Gupta, who describes himself and his family as “complete supporters, rabid fans” since 2007. He estimates he’s missed two games in that time.

Together with his wife, son, and daughter, the family holds five season tickets. They’ve sat in the same seats alongside a tight-knit crew of friends for nearly two decades — and don’t plan to change things with the perks of ownership.

“When we were going through this, this was like the biggest debate in our family,” Gupta said. “We’ve never been suite owners. We like being in our club section behind the Seahawks sideline, and that’s where we love watching the game. All our friends are there … that’s our community.”

While Gupta hasn’t directly partnered on a startup with Vinod Khosla, their paths have frequently crossed in venture capital circles. Over a career raising funds for four separate startups, Gupta noted Khosla Ventures was always on the “short list” of firms entrepreneurs hope to align with. Joining forces on the Seahawks deal presented an ideal way to combine those two worlds.

“Seattle is mostly a tech story and it’s a Seahawks story,” Gupta said. “The ability to have these two worlds combine is like a dream.”

Beyond his personal fandom, Gupta expressed strong confidence in the team’s current leadership. He noted that he caught up this week on the final episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks in anticipation of Thursday’s sale completion, coming away energized by the culture built by general manager John Schneider and second-year head coach Mike Macdonald.

“I was fired up last night on just what a great organization it is and the amazing job Mike and John do,” Gupta said. “The ability to continue the winning culture and just continue to win and support our fan base and community — that’s what it’s all about.”

The sale of the Seattle Seahawks to the Khosla family officially closed on Thursday, completing a historic ownership transition for the NFL franchise. But a small surprise emerged in the final paperwork.

Nestled among a newly revealed co-owner lineup were a couple familiar names for the Pacific Northwest tech community: former Apptio CEO and longtime Seattle entrepreneur Sunny Gupta, and Nader Naini, managing partner at Seattle-based healthcare private equity firm Frazier Healthcare Partners.

Under the final transaction terms announced by the team, Vinod Khosla — the billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist who founded Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures — will serve as chair, while his wife Neeru Khosla steps in as controlling owner and president of the Seahawks Charitable Foundation. Their son Neal Khosla takes on the role of vice chair.

The conclusion of the sale brings to an end an era of ownership under the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, while keeping the franchise’s deep ties to the technology sector intact.

Gupta and Naini appear on a list of co-owners that spans prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists, global private equity firms, institutional sports investors, and international business dynasties. They include:

• Mark Stevens, former Sequoia Capital partner and longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was an early investor in Nvidia, Google, and PayPal.
• Samir Kaul, founding partner and managing director at Khosla Ventures, leading investments across deep tech, sustainability, and health.
• Penny Pritzker, former U.S. Commerce Secretary, founder of PSP Partners, and former Hyatt Hotels executive.
• Sixth Street, global investment firm with extensive growth equity and tech investment practices.
• Carlyle and Dynasty Equity, major private equity firms, including sports-focused investor Dynasty Equity.
• Aramburuzabala Family, prominent Mexican investment family behind Tresalia Capital.
• Gonzalo Hevia Baillères, Mexican business leader who is currently the CEO and founder of HBeyond.
• Val Blavatnik, investor associated with global holding company Access Industries.
• Sheryl Sokoloff and Jesse van der Werf, private investors with backgrounds across industry and machinery services.

When news of the Allen estate’s decision to sell the team first broke, speculation ran rampant — including on GeekWire — about which deep-pocketed tech titan with Seattle ties might step up with almost $10 billion.

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, MacKenzie Scott, Satya Nadella, Rich Barton, Melinda French Gates — the list of mostly Seattle billionaires who took a pass was lengthy. The Khosla family emerged victorious, but at least brought along a couple heavyweights to keep the local tech flag flying.

Gupta brings deep roots in the region’s software ecosystem. He co-founded Bellevue-based enterprise software maker Apptio, guiding it through a public listing, a private equity buyout, and an eventual $4.6 billion sale to IBM in 2023. Gupta served as executive chair at Bellevue-based Smartsheet through its recent $8.4 billion private equity acquisition and launched enterprise AI startup Thira earlier this summer with $21 million in seed funding led by Madrona.

Naini grounds the group in local healthcare private equity and regional sports governance. He joined Seattle-based Frazier Healthcare Partners in 1991 and has led the firm since 1995, helping scale it to manage more than $11 billion in institutional capital globally. Based in Seattle, Naini serves on the board of the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers baseball team and is active with regional community organizations, including Bellevue-based senior living developer Aegis Living.

The Seahawks will formally introduce the Khosla family via press conference next Wednesday at 11 a.m. PT at Lumen Field. The team opens the 2026 season and defense of its Super Bowl title that night against the New England Patriots.

If your summer sports head is spinning about the current state of the Seattle Mariners, perhaps it’d be better served focusing on “spin rate,” particularly as it relates to Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold.

The Seahawks are the subject of the latest season of HBO’s Hard Knocks, an inside look at training camp and how the team is preparing to defend its Super Bowl championship this season.

Episode 2 of the series premiered Tuesday night, and Darnold — in his second season with the team — was a highlight among an hour of TV that had many. The NFL was even compelled to post part of it on Instagram.

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The Seahawks QB, along with the team’s passing game coordinator and one of Darnold’s primary receiving targets, all shared insight into why Darnold is an NFL leader when it comes to spin rate — and why it matters.

In a game increasingly loaded with analytics and Next Gen Stats, spin rate tracks the number of revolutions of the football while it’s in flight. The higher the rate, the tighter the spiral. The average NFL QB spin rate is 570. Darnold’s is “off the charts” at 639, according to Hard Knocks.

“From a young age, I’ve just been able to throw the football,” Darnold said on the show. “It was just something I always practiced. I’d be laying in bed with the football and just tossing it up to myself and trying to see how much I can spin it. And that’s just something I’ve always kind of been interested in and kind of a geek about.”

With a tight spiral on the football, the nose of the ball doesn’t tilt up or down, doesn’t wobble, and travels in a more effective manner to the receiver.

Veteran wide receiver Cooper Kupp knows there’s a science to throwing the ball, and he previously believed that spinning the ball too much made it harder to catch.

“I’ve now caught the ball from Sam for a year and a half, and now I’m not so sure,” Kupp said with a smile.

Darnold has been working on throwing a tight spiral since he was a kid tossing a football in the yard with his dad. Now when he generates a whip with his arm and the torque needed to throw the ball efficiently, he thinks about what’s ahead, particularly later in a season when weather can have a huge impact on the football.

HBO Sports is especially adept at capturing compelling footage on Hard Knocks. While Seattle, the Pacific Northwest and the Seahawks VMAC training facility on Lake Washington all make for a beautiful backdrop, it’s worth geeking out over Episode 2 for an extra-long shot of a Darnold pass in flight.

Set to a remix of the 1984 new wave hit “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” by the English pop band Dead or Alive, the shot is totally on target.

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla has made a fortune backing things that grow. Whether that will include real grass in the stadium of the Seattle Seahawks — the team he’s on the brink of owning — remains to be seen.

When asked directly on X whether he’d swap Lumen Field’s artificial turf for real grass, Khosla punted. Pledging a hands-off approach to football operations, he made it clear he intends to leave groundskeeping decisions to the team’s front office and the very leadership group that built a Super Bowl champion.

I’d defer to people at the @seahawks who know better than me. The team that got us the Super Bowl. https://t.co/8VFVuRYM9f

— Vinod Khosla (@vkhosla) August 9, 2026

The question carries fresh weight after Lumen Field successfully swapped its synthetic FieldTurf CORE system for natural grass to host 2026 FIFA World Cup matches.

With fans seeing proof that real sod works in the venue, player pressure isn’t far behind.

According to NFLPA player surveys, a massive 92% of players favor playing on natural grass over artificial turf, citing career longevity and a reduced risk of non-contact injuries. That sentiment is shared in Seattle’s own locker room: at the start of training camp, Seahawks veterans Cooper Kupp and Leonard Williams both voiced strong support for transitioning Lumen Field to real sod.

The interaction offers a fresh glimpse into what type of hands-off owner Khosla could be for the Seahawks.

On July 11, a group led by the billionaire and his family agreed to buy the Seahawks from the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for a reported $9.6 billion, which would be the highest price ever paid for an NFL team.

The deal — which names his wife Neeru as controlling owner and gives his son Neal a key executive role — is slated for a formal vote by NFL owners on Aug. 26 before the regular season kicks off.

Khosla is a longtime San Francisco 49ers fan and season ticket holder whose family bought a 3.1% stake in that team last year, which they’ll now have to sell.

In an appearance Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Pod,” he called the Seahawks a “great franchise” and their fan base, the 12s, “one of the best brands in the NFL.”

He doubled down on his non-interventionist style, saying any decision on a future playing surface at Lumen Field will be left to team management.

A big investor in startups and AI, Khosla did say that owning the Seahawks was a chance to diversify away from technology and do something “fun.”

“Live sports will be the one area that will be insulated from any disruption that AI causes, so it’s a great investment area per se,” he said on CNBC (at 19:35 in clip below).