Looks like John Madden may have hit retirement at just the right time. Madden, along with Electronic Arts, makers of the NFL game series that bears the former coach’s name, are about to be hit with a huge lawsuit. The suit claims that many players who were represented in the games have yet to make a dime off the multi-million selling installments.
Retired NFL players previously won a $28 million verdict against the NFL Players Association last fall when evidence of the union suggesting that EA scramble the identities of retired players to be “scrambled” was presented in court. What this meant was that the NFLPA diliberately tried to deny any royalties from being passed down to the players used in NFL videogames, particularly those from historical teams.
NFL retiree Bernie Perrish had this to say:
“The retired NFL players who were used in Madden EA video games will be suing Madden and EA for using us in those games without compensating us. Madden’s agent Sandy Montag boasts he and Madden collected over $100,000,000 in royalties while paying the retired NFL players used in those games absolutely nothing. Madden knows that the ugly truthful litigation is coming and is probably factoring that into his retirement. I doubt he wants to answer all those fans who will be asking, “Why, John Madden? Why did you screw all those retired players over, you seemed like such a friendly, good-natured buffoon?”
“No deals are going to be made because John Madden is moving his act to his home office where he will continue to screw over the retired players without having to face the fans around the country. Madden and Montag plan to continue licensing Madden without compensating retired players.”
We’ll keep you updated as this story develops.
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