“The new Madden, whoever made that, I’ve got to go see them,” the New England Patriots running back said. “They just tricked the whole game up, didn’t they? The attributes are all wrong. I know I was hurt last year, but I went from a 90 to a 78. It’s crazy. It’s ludicrous. Everything is down.”
Generally speaking, every Madden junky in an NFL locker room knows their rating as soon as the game is released, and generally speaking, they always believe their ratings are too low.
Maroney seems to have a case, though. While his 2008 season was marred by an injury, it was a bit bizarre to see his overall rating drop 12 points. Plus, he had a 93 speed rating and 95 acceleration rating in Madden '09, but they dropped to 83 and 85, respectively — if not respectfully — in Madden '10.
“I could have sworn my shoulder was hurt,” Maroney said, “not my feet.”
But Maroney laughed it off when he found some consolation in one of his friend’s ratings.
“I didn’t feel half bad when I saw Reggie Bush at a 79,” Maroney joked.
While Maroney said there’s nothing else he’d change about the game, Patriots linebacker Tully Banta-Cain prefers the older versions to the graphically-enhanced, newer games.
“They kind of changed the game [over the years],” Banta-Cain said. “I used to play on PS2. Now they’ve got the game on PS3 and Xbox 360. It’s like a different game. I just don’t like how it’s too technical. The graphics are great, but it’s kind of unrealistic. I really liked the PlayStation 2 [versions] and how it played better.”
During Banta-Cain’s first tour with the Patriots, Madden was a little more competitive in the locker room. It was pretty common for him, running back Corey Dillon, safety Rodney Harrison and wide receiver Bam Childress to battle one another, but Banta-Cain said his video game days have scaled back, although he still finds some time to play Dillon online.
One thing that won’t ever change is each player’s confidence in his skills. When asked who was the most dominant Madden player in the group, Banta-Cain offered up the uniform response.
“I was the best,” he said.
