Well, I've been an vocal (just not hear) "I hate SEGA and their crappy 2k football game" person for awhile now. I loved the first one, until I learned on the second day that you can't run the ball. Ever since, I seem to have found, even looked for, glaring flaws in the game to add fuel to my hatred. Rainbow passing, superhuman dives, etc, etc.. So, I didn't buy 2k3 or 2k4, although I did rent them. This year, I bought 2k5 only cuz it was cheap and all my online friends were going to get it. I went and picked it up the day it came out, and I found that I do like some of the features of ESPN. In fact, I found myself playing it exclusively until the day Madden came out (at the expense of Spiderman 2 and NCAA). I think I'm 28-10 online, or something, and I told a friend that I was starting to the like the game. I still see tons of flaws, as I'm sure many people do, as I'm sure many other people are willing to ignore.
Since Madden came out, though, I've only played ESPN twice. One offline game to readjust to the controls, and one online league game immediately after that. (I'd be more excited about our league, but we are playing on "Defense Doesn't Exist" Pro setting.. ugh..) I even lent it to a neighbor for a night.
So, I appreciate that you are having great difficulty in choosing a single game to focus on. I thought I would have the same problem when I was playing ESPN. And I probably will, once the NCAA season starts, and I rekindle my desire to play college ball.
:shrug: