Scrambled Images Not in Madden ’10

Posted on May 17, 2009 by

EA Sports says it has less to do with recent legal action, and more with “consistency across the franchise.

Kris Pigna over at 1up.com tells us that after a review of all versions of Madden NFL ’10 it appears EA Sports has scrapped the ‘legacy teams’ that was at the center of Herb Adderley’s lawsuit on behalf of retired players. (You can read Kris’ article here.) In case you missed it, Adderley won a $28.1M jury verdict against the NFLPA who had been found guilty of conspiring with EA to scramble the images of retired players that made up the legacy teams. According to Pigna, EA officials say their decision to drop the ‘legacy teams’ was just a matter of getting some consistency across the entire franchise.

Consistency or attempting to ward off a pending lawsuit? You’ve got to think that once the union was pounded with the $28.1M verdict the folks at EA Sports got more than a little nervous. After all, it was their company that produced the game and their employees that communicated with the union to scramble the images.

What may have excellerated EA’s pursuit to distance themselves from the past was a letter published by retired player Bernie Parrish that threatened legal action against the video game maker. As Pigna explains, due to the earlier verdict against the union coupled with the possibility of pending litigation EA may choose to omit the ‘legacy teams’ from future Madden NFL games for quite a while

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About Jeff Nixon

Jeff was a first team consensus All-American from the University of Richmond in 1978. He is 7th in NCAA history with 23 career interceptions. Played for the Buffalo Bills 1979-1984. Led the team with 6 interceptions in Rookie Year. Holds Bills record for 4 takeaways in a single game - 3 interceptions and a fumble recovery. Tied Bills record with four consecutive games with an interception. After 5 knee surgeries Jeff retired from pro football in 1985. He worked for 13 years (1988-2000) as the Youth Bureau Director for Buffalo and Erie County. He has worked for the past 11 years as the Youth Employment Director for Buffalo. Plays guitar and was voted best R&B guitar player by Buffalo Nightlife Magazine in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
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