Right there is the rub, it seems at times that Tiburon tries to innovate even when what's already been/being done is better. Making Madden a football simulation is not some new slogan, Madden developers have been claiming that for years, yet they have still chosen attempted innovation over proven realism, repeatedly. Just as one example, Ian stated flat out that longer animations were more fluid and realistic/lifelike but that he opted for some new branching tech, ProTak, that used shorter, less realistic animations, for better User control. In general there is nothing wrong with that, it's just a matter of preference, he made User control a priority over realism, the contradiction is doing that while claiming creating a football simulation is the goal.
So the issue seems to be that recreating NFL football in a video game using what's already been done isn't that hard but trying to invent some NFL simulation/arcade hybrid is. It's never been done before and Tiburon is the only studio I know of that's been trying to do it for at least 10 years.