Those of you who know me, know how much I love my iPad. Since my father-in-law bought me the iPad 2 last year, I have found ways to use the iPad in just about every aspect of my professional and personal life!

I use it to teach from, projecting Keynote presentations and showing video clips to my students. I use it to read and respond to Email. I use it to read and study the Bible (I even have a ‘read-through-the-Bible’ function in my BibleReader that keeps me on track!) I communicate with family and friends using Skype, I share and view photos and videos from family and friends. I keep track of the news, the weather, sports, all on my iPad. The list of all the things I do with my iPad is too long for me to list here… needless to say, I take the iPad with me most places.

I love my iPad so much, that it makes me happy when I find others who appreciate and use their iPads as much as I do. Recently I came across a news story talking about how many football teams are going completely digital with their playbooks and how it is such a radical improvement over the ‘old school’ way of doing things.

Technology has come to the Dallas Cowboys. Gone are the old playbooks. In is the iPad.

“It beats killing all those trees with all the paper in your hand,” defensive end Jason Hatcher said. “It’s easier to learn. They can download a lot of stuff and you can be ahead of the game. You can watch film and go through the instillation before you get it the next day. You can be in your room getting ahead. It’s very useful.”

The Cowboys are like a number of teams in the NFL that have put their playbooks on iPads. Coach Jason Garrett said most of the players have grown up on video games and that this might be an easier way for them to learn.

But he doesn’t want them to get away from the correct way of studying. He wants them to take notes just as they would before, except now they can take those notes on the iPad.

Garrett added that some of the coaches have needed some help in adjusting to technology.

“There are some old-school guys who take a tremendous amount of pride in being old-school guys,” Garrett said.

And for those worried about players scanning the Internet or playing Words With Friends during meeting time, there is security in place so they can’t download any apps.

“I don’t think there’s any minuses,” defensive end Marcus Spears said, “unless you lose it and have to pay that fine.”

How much is that fine? Try $10,000. That’s pretty hefty. And they also get fined for not having the iPad charged for meetings.