Madden NFL 23 is the latest in EA Sports’ long-running and extremely popular Madden NFL series which began back in 1988 with John Madden Football. As with previous games, players can take their favorite teams to the gridiron in everything from a quick, one-off game to managing a full season in hopes of bringing home the Super Bowl and plenty more in between. The latest game also served as a celebration of the life and career of John Madden, who passed away on December 28, 2021, and was announced as the cover star on June 1, 2022.
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As mentioned above, the EA Tiburon announcement said it will be removing the game’s CPR celebration in the wake of Hamlin’s medical emergency, which left him in a medically-induced coma for roughly a week. A spokesperson for EA Sports told CBS Sports the studio would be removing the celebration “in the coming days” due to Hamlin’s scare. The spokesperson was unable to give an exact date as to when it would be taken out, though it would not be surprising if EA Tiburon removed the celebration fairly quickly following the news.
Hamlin’s medical scare has been the talk of the NFL for well over a week due to the frightening severity and how it seemingly came out of nowhere. The 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety collapsed on the field after tackling Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins during what appeared to be a fairly routine play. Hamlin was quickly rushed to the hospital where it was found he suffered from cardiac arrest, placed in a medically-induced coma for roughly a week before awakening, and has since improved.
While the decision to remove the CPR celebration speaks to the reach of Hamlin’s scare, it can also be argued it is the latest show of respect to the young football player. Players can argue the greatest show of respect was shown during the week 17 game, where both the Bills and Bengals refused to finish the game due to the severity of Hamlin’s emergency, forcing the NFL to cancel the game. The silver lining, as mentioned above, is Hamlin is now awake, improving, and even appears to have a dark sense of humor about it after asking a nurse if “we won” shortly after awakening.
Madden NFL 23 is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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Source: CBS Sports, (via Video Games Chronicle)
