Madden NFL 23 Cover Athelete is..

It’s the time of year when EA announces the cover athlete of their Madden game…and the winner is.John Madden.

Ninicelydone by EA to celebrate the man after his passing in December ’21. Of course, what goes into the game is nothing like what Trip Hawkins did 30+ years ago, but what a franchise.

Glad that he’s getting recognition one last time, even if he’s not around to appreciate it. Then again, maybe it was in the contract… LOL

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And the cover of Madden NFL 23 will be..

John Madden.

Sounds appropriate,eh?

Streaming Service

Do you use a streaming service to watch live TV instead of cable? If so what service and why do you like it?

Asking for a friend…..

EA, FIFA End Partnership

It was rumored back in October 2021 that FIFA wanted to end the exclusive partnership. Today it is official, courtesy of the NY Times.

Starting with what would have been called FIFA 24, it will now be called “EA Sports FC.”

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/10/sports/soccer/fifa-ea-sports.html

A good run

The sports teams that I have followed in my lifetime have never really, truly, been winners.

The Brewers have only been in a single World Series once in my lifetime.

The Bucks have never been beyond the conference finals since I was born.

Crystal Palace, the club that has become a massive part of my life, has only won a single trophy in my life… and that cup doesn’t even exist anymore.

The Islanders, while they won 4 Stanley Cups in a row between ’79 and ’83… haven’t been a good hockey team for the majority of my life. Outside of an amazing run to the Conference finals in 1993, the Isles have been a complete mess for nearly 30 years.

So, it’s easy to see why tonight’s loss for the Islanders was tough for so many fans. Sure I might have yelled out a few curse words at the end of the game, but everyone knows it’s always the hope that kills you, and when you love a team that has come up short every year, the pain is amplified when you feel like “THIS IS OUR YEAR.”

In the minutes after the game had concluded, I thought back to Sean Doolittle’s quote, “Sports are like the reward of a functioning society,” and I realized that we are so lucky to have any sort of distraction from the reality that we are living in right now.

The Islanders players spent months away from their families (and loved ones) to give me, and others, a bit of enjoyment so that we could watch people play hockey.

I truly wish that I could do or say something to each of the players on the team to let them know how much I appreciated everything that they gave up over these past few months. I hope they understand that their fans care for them and their families. I want them to be able to go home, with their heads up, and be proud of all that they did. At the very least, we owe them that for all that they gave to us.

Noooooope

That’s all I have to say for the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

All this time and that’s all you get from me? Well, maybe not.

At this point, I’m looking to get a new video card (either an RTX 3070 or whatever ATI is offering next) and upgrading my monitors to a pair of QHD capable ones. That’ll hold me off for quite some time.

$500 per system, $70 games, and $70 controllers really aren’t getting me all that excited at this point. More than happy with my PS4, Xbox One X, Switch, and PC titles that I’ve been picking up over the last few years, thank you very much.

New Sports Games

Been a while since a post, but then again, what’s been going on except for quarantining?

A couple of new sports games have come out since we last chatted.

First, Super Mega Baseball 3. As Glen said a few months back, it’s hard to understand why this game is $45 and the other 2 were $20…but if there’s anyone I want to see survive this pandemic, I can throw another $25 to these game creators.

Super Mega Baseball 3 is fantastic. I really enjoy it…easy to play, hard to master…great stats kept, so many modes to play…I will say it plays fine on the Nintendo Switch..although if you’re playing in handheld mode it’s a little harder to read and pitch for this old guy. On the TV it’s fine…but I still prefer the Xbox One version…just looks so much better.

I’m going to wait for the Steam sale to buy it on Steam…that will be fun though. I had some expiring $$ on Xbox so that’s why I went in that direction.

The other game, which I haven’t heard boo about is AO Tennis for the PC. It’s free with Origin Access Premier and I can’t remember the last time there was a tennis game worth talking about. I exclude Mario Tennis because uh..that’s not really tennis.

This AO game is pretty good..the sounds, the graphics…it really feels like you are playing the game. The aiming process on shots takes time to get used to and hitting aces is not easy, unless of course you’re the computer. I played a men’s singles game in about 40 minutes as Nadal…I won 3 sets to 0 but it sounds a lot easier than it was. If you have Origin Premier, it’s a no brainer to try out!!

Actual sports game news

The NFL is letting 2K make games as long as they are not “simulation style” games. My belief is this is going to be more of the RBI Baseball titles than anything else. Sad that this didn’t happen 15 years ago when there could have been a Tecmo rebirth.

Super Mega Baseball 3 is coming out next month, but at a price tag of $45. Why they would more than double their price for a title that has no licensing is kind of beyond me.

Instant Karma

Since my youngest daughter began playing hockey last September, I couldn’t be more proud of the way that she has developed on the ice along with how great of a teammate that she has become for the rest of the players on her team.

This last weekend, we traveled three hours away for her last tournament of the year.  It has been a challenging year for her team, as they have only won 3 games, but they have worked hard throughout and there has been great growth shown through the year.

The first game was one of the best that her team had played all season and it was a tremendous effort as they out-shot a team that had only lost one game on the year, but her team lost the game 5-1.  Coming into the next game our spirits were pretty high, hoping that they could replicate their effort from early the morning.  I was able to be on the bench for the game, since one of our coaches was not available for the early stages of the game, so I was able to try and reinforce the messages that the coaches were passing onto the players.

Soon after the opening whistle it was pretty clear that we just didn’t have the same intensity that we had in the morning and fell behind.  After that, the other team began taunting some of the girls on our team, telling them that “Girls didn’t belong on the ice” and that “Girls shouldn’t be playing hockey.”

One thing that I didn’t mention is that there are 7 girls on our team (including my daughter, along with daughters of each of the coaches) and while each of them tried to let the comments bounce off of them, it eventually got the best of them and they struggled with their emotions and their focus late in the game.

After the game was over, we did the best we could to help raise their spirits and let them know that we were all proud of them and that they deserved to be on the ice as much as any of the players of any team.   Just before we left the rink, we looked at the bracket for the tournament and saw that there was a match-up remaining that evening that would decide who would play the team that just taunted and beat my daughter’s team.  If things went right, an all-girls team would be playing them the next morning.

After a good nights rest, the kids all came back to the rink and we saw that the all-girls team would be taking on the team that beat us the night before.  While we had our own game to pay attention to, we couldn’t help but to think about the game that was coming up after ours.  I went and spoke to one of the coaches for the other team and let them know what the boys on the ice were saying to our girls the night before.  He said, “Hmm.. I think we can do something with that.”

So, after our game was over, we went to the bleachers and sat next to the families and friends for the girls team and let them know we would be cheering for them during their game.  For the whole game, our team (girls and boys) screamed and cheered for their team and were delighted to see them beat the boys, 5-3.  The girls team came over to our side of the ice after the game and tapped their sticks and waved to our team to thank them for supporting them throughout the game.

All of our players then went to the door to congratulate players from both teams, even though they had been treated so badly by so many of the boys on the team the night before.

When the ice had been cleared, I had multiple parents come over to thank us for cheering on their team and let us know how wonderful the sportsmanship that our team had shown was.

As I said before, I couldn’t be more proud of my daughter and the player that she has become on the ice.  She stands up for herself, she stands up for her teammates, and she stands up for what she believes in.

I am proud of her, not just because she is a hockey player, but of the woman that she is becoming.

Football!

Will Glen is happy because Manchester City is good at own goals.

I am happy because Manchester City is good at own goals. I am also happy because Liverpool is so damn good. My son is playing soccer (and attending college) in Leeds which is another football bastion. I am totally jealous.

In other news I think Sega should re-release Joe Montana football (SF Edition) and Joe Montana football (KC edition) and see who wins.

Weird not having the Patriots in the game. Unless you count Jimmy G.