So I got Madden when it came out, played it, tried my hardest to tweak it, got mad because I have the Xbox version and draft classes didn't work, bought ESPN NFL Football, had a blast with it, sold original madden, then this week got the replacement disk back...
And after playing ESPN for almost a month straight, I still really enjoy madden, and think it does some things MUCH better than ESPN.
Another thing I noticed, the game plays GREAT on default All-Star. I've had two great preseason games so far, not high scoring or anything. The only two things I changed were Penalties and quarter length.
I think I got too worked up over slider settings that I didn't give the game time, and play it default for a bit. It really plays very very well.
I guess my advice, after being away from Madden for a bit, is go and play some Default All-Pro games. See what you think. Although ESPN is definitely an AMAZING game, I think I'm going to have a great time with Madden and NCAA running simultaneous dynasties/franchises, watching players go through college and get to the primetime of the NFL.