Why 6000 NFL Veterans are Suing EA (Hint: It isn’t because their asses look too big in Madden NFL 09.)

Here are the facts.  Electronic Arts (EA) have got themselves into quite the predicament.  A class action lawsuit has been filed against them by a group of NFL Veterans, 6000 of them, actually.  For those of you who do not know what a class action lawsuit is (which is most of you idiots), it is a lawsuit that is filed on behalf of a group of people who have been supposedly injured or negatively affected by a company, in this case, EA.  What did EA do?

EA’s Madden NFL 09 gave players the ability to play with historic teams.  Only, the historic teams consisted of nameless players with randomly assigned jersey numbers.  These players, however, were strikingly similar to actual NFL Veterans.  Some of the similarities included the players height and weight, the players position, and the players stats.  Even though these players were nameless and had different jersey numbers, any person with some NFL knowledge could tell who these players were.  On top of that, players can even go in and edit their names on the rosters.  EA allegedly did this to avoid the licensing fees that are required to be payed when using an NFL player’s actual name and jersey number in their game.  The class of vets is seeking exemplary damages for deprivation and the violation of publicity rights.  EA makes no comment on anything regarding to this case.  The lawsuit can be viewed here.

Here’s my opinion.

I say instead of handling this legally, they brawl.  Imagine 6000 NFL Veterans with their gear on marching towards EA headquarters with torches and tridents (O.J. Simpson possibly being amongst the throng, making it 15x more dangerous).  Seriously though, this is complete bullshit; why are NFL vets making a huge stink out of something so trivial?  Yeah, technically they are being stolen from, but how can they prove that the players were 100 percent intended to represent them.  The vets also said the stats are similar. How the hell do they know, did their coach place them on a 1 to 100 scale for endurance, speed, tackling, etc. . .  Also, this case is recent, why the fuck are they still playing Madden NFL 09 when 10 is out, they’re clearly novices in the gaming world and have surpassed enemy lines.  They have no idea what EA is capable of.  I heard, that since this lawsuit has been filed against EA, the actual jerseys of the vets have been going missing, and returned a week later with the name tore off, the number changed, and blood stains on them.  EA’s team of lawyers range from Tony Montana’s lawyer from Scarface to O.J. Simpson’s lawyer.  EA’s programmers wear gloves when they work on Madden games, what if all of their gloves didn’t fit, what if they were incapable of fixing the glitch?  We’ll see how this lawsuit plays out, so be sure to keep up with us here at RealTalkGaming.com.

Michael Cox a.k.a. P0OPDOGG