NFL should take page from Madden on how to conduct 2020 draft
By John McCarty
The Madden video game series provides an opportunity to the NFL on a fun and interesting alternative to draft prospects floating in the Bellagio pool. When the world gives you lemons…
For Madden gamers out there, especially those that have played the Madden Franchise before, the video game does its best in a limited capacity to bring the pomp and circumstance of the draft to the player.
In a year in which the league has been forced to cancel the draft in Las Vegas due to the pandemic sweeping the globe, the league has an opportunity to present its biggest spring event in a unique way, and have fun with it at the same time.
With measurements having been done at the combine of many of the top prospects and plenty of imagery available, the league should present their NFL Draft as a video game. The makers of the video games have already digitized Roger Goodell and have plenty of experience with prospects of various shapes and sizes; Simply create prospects with names that match real draft prospects, and now all a sudden, you have a Madden video game presentation of the NFL Draft.
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Is it the same as watching the real draft? No, of course not, but that’s not an option.
Without fans being able to attend an event or having large quantities of people around, the draft could basically be like watching SportsCenter as the draft is conducted via speaker phone. That doesn’t sound that fun or interesting. Maybe there will be a podium for Goodell to speak at, I don’t know. None of us do and the NFL might not either.
So, this is the time to have fun with it and try something outside the box.
If the developers at Madden are still working, one would have to think they can still create images and highlights from pre exisiting highlights? Imagine watching the Cincinnati Bengals select Joe Burrow with Madden like highlighs of him throwing passes in college that transition into ‘highlights’ of him throwing passes to AJ Green. Or – to bring up a local angle – visualize Patrick Mahomes throwing a pass at Texas Tech and then transitioning to a pass going to Travis Kelce.
There are hurdles to be sure. College licensing would need to be addressed if highlights are to be shown via the Madden style. Can the programmers do that with enough players in enough uniforms to make it work?
It’s not a great idea, but it’s an interesting idea and something that would make this draft more than just a conference call and yet another reminder of what we have lost and what we are all going through.