You made the point that EA, even if they really did offer mega-deals before they were approached (which no one has ever proven, just speculated) still were the suitor that could have been turned down just as the MLB and NBA has.
The "bad guy", if you don't like this exclusive situation as it currently stands, is the folks who run the sports themselves, the NFL and the NCAA not the company who brought the contract.
The bottom line here is that once the NFL and NCAA decided to go with the exclusive agreements then EA had to bid as much as they could to get the contracts. As for your comment about they had more money than 2K, yeah, so what? Usually the company who has more money wins a bidding war.
EA has
nothing to be ashamed of in making a very sound business decision securing two of their most profitable products. If 2K or any other company had the resources they would have done the exact same thing.
So in summary, you made the other sides point for us when you brought up the NBA in your post. Your anger, or your dislike, of the exclusive agreements should be 100% directed at the NFL and the NCAA, if they had so desired they could have gone the route of the NBA and there would be multiple games by multiple devs. EA had no decision to make once the exclusive agreements became desirable to the NFL and NCAA..