Take a look at the new physics engine that naturalmotion.com has created.
http://www.naturalmotion.com/pages/demos.htm The upper right video that says Sneak preview has some incredible football animations. This physics engine is expected to be used by many companies that are developing PS3 games. Haven't heard about it being used for XBOX360. Anyway just watch some of the videos on here. They are incredible. I really hope that EA uses this engine for Next-Gen becasue that would make the game that much better. Also you can download a free full version of this software right from the company. It is fully unlocked and there is no time trial. The only thing that you can't do is use your creations commercially. I downloaded it and have made some animations of my own. This thing is unbelievable. I suggest you try it out. A word of caution though, YOU WILL SPEND HOURS AT A TIME WITH THIS PROGRAM. Once you get the hang of it you can't stop using it. Some of the things you can do are just unreal.