Despite a multitude of professional football teams vastly overpaying for his services over the last few seasons, DeAngelo Hall is a little down in the dumps. He’s a wittle upset. The no-more-than-140-characters-at-a-time-type-upset. (By the way, I thoroughly enjoy how on Hall’s Twitter page there’s a picture of him speaking with the the Redskins’ three Lombardi trophies displayed in the foreground. That’s like Phil Coke getting promoted to the bigs and calling an impromptu press conference in which he comes out draped in one of the Yankees championship banner like he’s Tim Robbins on the Bob Roberts poster.) You see, DeAngelo never let his play on the field get in the way of his own self-esteem. The people at EA Sports, however, have a different, more logical philosophy.
Via Redskins.com:
As I mentioned earlier, cornerback DeAngelo Hall was practicing like a man possessed today.
I had seen the news late last week that Hall’s rankings had taken the biggest drop of any player’s in this year’s edition of Electronic Arts’ wildly successful Madden football videogame, plummeting 25 points from a 93 to a 68.
“Ah, I’m feelin’ good, man. We just keep trying to get better, but, yeah, I’m trying to blow off some steam with my Madden rating.”
“I’m thinking about trying to get my name and likeness pulled off the game entirely. ‘Cause this is bull.”
Wow. A 68?!? That’s right in the heart of Mike Rumph country. And boy, how incomplete with a Madden game without DeAngelo Hall feel? Of course, that would never happen. Because then instead of just having to quickly edit himself to achieve a 99 rating, he’d have to go through the process of creating a player and honestly who has time for that nowadays? I mean, I tried making myself for the aforementioned MLB The Show and reached the point where I was attempting to accurately re-create the depth of my nostrils and realized that I was partaking in possibly one of the saddest things a human being approaching 30 can participate in and thus had to take a little personal inventory of my own. But why am I yabbering on when there’s more DeAngelo Hall tomfoolery to highlight?
Well, what about EA making in-season improvements to the ranking?
“They do that as the season goes on, so hopefully if I grab ten or twelve [interceptions], and get my respect back, my dignity back … we’ll see.”
By this point it was clear that Hall was legitimately bummed out by this turn of events, and I said so.
“Well, yeah,” he said, and paused. “I’m a little disappointed in the system. Good thing I don’t play the game for Madden ratings.”
Sure, being motivated more by a rating in a video game as opposed to say, your actual, real-life recent lack of achievements is mindbendingly absurd, but at the same time I wonder how often a coach or even teammate has started a false rumor about a player’s Madden rating to light a fire under their ass. Rumor has it, that’s the real reason why Steve Smith punched Ken Lucas. Ditto for this lil tussle:
My beloved Lions should definitely try and implement this strategy. I volunteer Ernie Sims. I mean, if he can send his own brother to the hospital without any real provocation, then imagine him as a sort Lattimer-Bobby Boucher hybrid when angered by someone’s harsh and callous judgment of his worth. Might as well at least try.
