How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

[BrKrMaTa]

I've been playing Madden NFL for about a decade now, and I have to say as much criticism as the game receives at times, it has been one of the most useful teaching tools for the game of football for me up to this point.

I played ball in high school, and was pretty good achieving all- city first team running back honors, but I must admit, 10 years removed from high school, that my understanding of the game of football then is no where close to what it is now. I sometimes sit back and think about how much better of a player I could have been back then if I had coupled that athleticism with my current understanding of the Xs and Os that make up the game of football.

I take pride in calling myself a sim player because its such a satisfying feeling IMO to go up against another sim player and really have a chest match taking place. Even if I lose, their is still satisfaction to be had in the overall experience. I give madden credit for contributing to my extensive knowlege of the game to this point because i feel like I can talk Xs and Os with the best of em,(hell even my wife can talk strategy because of this game)

I believe that the more accurte Madden is,(or any football game, for that matter) in representing real football scenarios the more useful it could be as a means of learning and teaching the real game of football to those who would otherwise not be exposed to the real game enough to fully understand the strategy that goes into it.

So just a topic that was on my mind feel free to tell how Madden has contributed to your understanding of the game or how it has assited you in teaching others the beautiful game that is football.

Peace


P.S. Finally the game is getting back on track toward the sim experience.Sim is beautiful

[Cryolemon]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

It helped a lot really. Living in the UK I don't much chance to watch football and even less chance to play, so Madden taught me a lot about it.

[SHO]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

When I was younger, I played Coach Corner A LOT.

[Alliball]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

About this much...0

[CapnKill]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

Big time... started playing Madden 05 for the PS2... and that in conjunction with watching games has tought me a ton.

[adembroski]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

It did lay the foundation back in '93, '94, but only the basics. After that, I researched.

[Bears_16_and_0]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

no football game taught me anything about the game really, ive been playing them my whole life though. I thought I was pretty good with football knowledge but then I see LBRulz and some of the guys talk about X's and O's....

I played QB for like 7 years for my peewee team, so I always had a good understanding of the game.

Check out this site, has some crazy stuff about offense:

http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/

[DubTrey1]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

None really. If anything Madden pointed out things that were not right with football - Understandably since it is a video game....

[maddenps2]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

When i was younger it helped me understand the basics of football. Recently it has taught me how the lack of simulated physics keeps madden from simulating real life football.

[Broncos86]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

"John Madden Football" taught me that players catch the football by allowing the football to slam into their body, sometimes through their back (they can improve their chances if they raise their hands as if signaling a FG is good). I also learned that to tackle someone, you must hold your hands to chest and dive at them with your head (but only if diving at them perpendicular to the field). This was a tough adjustment from what Tecmo Bowl taught (that to tackle someone, you must slide on the ground).

Lastly, Madden taught me that medical personnel do not care about players, and will go to great lengths to get to their destination, even if it means taking out other players.

[RyanMoody21]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

Madden is a game about pro athletes. Anybody who thinks because they played sports they can relate to a pro athlete is crazy.

"You know, I can really relate to Ray Lewis, I played MLB in Pop Warner."

I understand that's not what the OP was going for, Im just making a general statement.

From a HB perspective, I don't see what Madden should be able to teach (other than vision and patience) you as a player. Your coaches should have been teaching you, not Madden. Chances are very slim that at a high school level you have any of the real life skill sets of a NFL player, or at the very least they aren't as fine tuned. Essentially you shouldn't be able to emulate all the moves you see in Madden. That said, your also going up against often confused defense.

I played in the secondary my entire high school career, I played CB, Safety and even some WR. In a pinch I returned punts. Its hard to get any recognition from county or state when you aren't playing one position constantly. I went onto play semi pro, but much like many other people I meant along the way, without proper conditioning (IE having a day job leads to an in proper diet and lack of time for workouts), your body really cant stand up to even a watered down semi pro league for long.

All that said, as a secondary player I get sick watching or playing Madden. The rapid starting and stopping and bad coverage angles. Playing the ball (not your position on the field) above all else and extremely bad decision making in coverage (regardless of how good or bad the attribute are). If I played in the secondary at any level like they do in Madden, I would have had a whole lot more time to play Madden on my hands.

[Cubone_Jones]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

"John Madden Football" taught me that players catch the football by allowing the football to slam into their body, sometimes through their back (they can improve their chances if they raise their hands as if signaling a FG is good). I also learned that to tackle someone, you must hold your hands to chest and dive at them with your head (but only if diving at them perpendicular to the field). This was a tough adjustment from what Tecmo Bowl taught (that to tackle someone, you must slide on the ground).

Lastly, Madden taught me that medical personnel do not care about players, and will go to great lengths to get to their destination, even if it means taking out other players.

haha oh the memories.

Personally, Madden has just been a part of football since I can remember. I remember playing Madden 92 with my cousin who was a HSer back when I was really young. I'm sure Madden helped me understand the game, and I know it helped me understand the NFL (with franchise and everything).

[JeriousNorwood]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

I know people think this thread is a joke and feel they knew everything before Madden, but Madden really increased my knowledge of the pro game. If you bring up some obscure player, I could probably tell you everything about them thanks to Madden.

Before Madden, I had a very basic understanding of the game. However, Madden taught me formations and coverages as well. Now when an NFL team lines up I can rattle off what formation they are in or what type of defensive scheme they are using. So yes, the majority of my technical knowledge came from Madden, and more importantly, the desire to watch and research football came from Madden as well.

[BezO]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

Aside from Jerious, those saying they learned something from Madden are not saying what they learned. I'm very curious.

[Broncos86]

Re: How has Madden contributed to your overall understanding of Football ?

Aside from Jerious, those saying they learned something from Madden are not saying what they learned. I'm very curious.

That's fair. Honestly, though, what I learned came through either playing the game, or just researching.