That's a very good point and I think one reason that alot of the people who liked ESPN better was so vehement in their defense of the game. I've said all along that some people just preferred something different, and in fact that's one aspect I liked about ESPN as well, despite loving Madden hard and for a long time I loved the "feel" that ESPN would give me when I'd pop it into my XBox.
This reason above is the reason that IGN and others have speculated EA will now try to buy or license the ESPN for Xbox and keep Madden on PS2 to milk both moo cows, while also getting exclusive rights licenses from Microsoft and Sony. It'd make smart business sense, give everyone a choice (assuming they have both systems and if not force them to pony up the snaps for a new XBox or PS2 depending on which game they want) and also give them the right to feel good about what it is they're doing in the industry by making all parties involved happy to the nth degree.