Going backward to move forward. It's probably the best way to explain what leagueManager creator Derek Adams has done to help create a more in-depth Online Franchise mode experience for users in Madden 11.

A third-party tool created by an avid Madden fan, leagueManager is more like a next-gen League Daddy website tailored just for Madden 11. By using leagueManager, you enable your Madden Online Franchise to incorporate free agency, player contracts, a salary cap, holdouts and even Pro Bowl nominations. Simply put, an actual in-depth offseason comes into play with leagueManager in tow.

In fact, you can actually do even more than what has been listed, but the point is simple: leagueManager equals more depth for those gamers out there who expected more from the Online Franchise mode in Madden 11.

"Once I heard no updates were being made [to the Online Franchise mode], I decided to take a custom approach for myself," said Derek Adams. "I built a (primitive in comparison) tool for managing my league's salary cap and player contracts. After a few people approached me about getting it set up for their league, I expanded it and made it possible for anyone to create a league instance."

Look Cowboys fans, you can see your team's failings on leagueManager, too!

One of the great things about sports games has always been user-created updates. Whether it's the people who still go out and update the Super Tecmo Bowl rosters, or the gamers who create full-on NFL teams and rosters for Backbreaker, the fans have always added more to a sports game after its release.

Derek just built on that tradition by adding something to one of his favorite games -- just in a way that was made possible by this generation of gaming.

"Basically, what leagueManager (LM) does behind the scenes is act as a Web browser and visits the EA website. By taking the user name and password that the user supplies, LM authenticates with the EA servers and uses your unique Online Franchise ID (that the user supplies) to gain access to the Online Franchise. From there, LM grabs the data that is driving what you see in your Online Franchise, inputs it in to your LM database and then feeds it back to you on LM.

The Pro Bowl calculation made by leagueManager is just one of the perks of the application.

Simply put, if you input the correct information on the leagueManager website, the website will grab all your data from EA's website and bring that information over to the leagueManager home page. From there, the synced rosters, stats and so on can all be checked on leagueManager.

"LM brings all the other aspects into the game that Online Franchise has been unable to give us. Truly adding a GM dimension to the franchise makes it that much more fun for me."

Instead of enriching your experience with Earl Weaver Baseball by taking a pen to paper to keep track of your team or inputting all your stats onto League Daddy by hand after a league game in Madden 2004, Derek added to his experience in the "next-gen" way.

"Without the salary cap and contracts, Online Franchise was still an incredibly fun game mode. Adding in the intricacies of roster management truly brings the game mode to life."

Make the tough decisions and decide who you want to re-sign or let slip away to free agency.

Customization is perhaps the best about leagueManager. The website will automatically set the salary cap and player contracts for every player and team in the league, but for the truly insane out there, a commissioner can actually go through and create a custom salary cap and player contracts.

leagueManager 4.0 was just recently released, so it's actually a great time to check out the service because of some of the added functionality, including standalone capabilities.

"LM now not only grabs and syncs data from the EA franchise website, but it can also add/drop players to the live in-game rosters. So if you add/drop a player, LM will automatically go to your in-game roster and make the change for you. This is especially handy during the free-agency bidding period and the player re-signing period. Once the league commissioner closes the bidding or re-signing period, LM automatically drops the players not re-signed and adds the winning bidders' players to their respective teams."

Of course, much like with anything else, there are some bugs and shortcomings that Derek wants to address as well.

"I am actually pushing a version 4.1 patch soon to take care of a lot of issues people are seeing with season two stat tracking. Since my league isn't in season two yet, I never even caught the issues."

Stats do have a tendency to be miscalculated during the second season of an Online Franchise.

Ultimately, the version 4.1 patch will be just another step on the way towards Derek completing his goals for leagueManager.

"Many people want LM to be a one-stop shop. For example, they can come to LM to get schedules, standing, full statistics. Basically, completely remove their need to go to the EA Online Franchise website. That is what I want to accomplish."


Head to myleaguemanager.net to check out the service and find out even more about its uses.