Usually as professional football seasons starts up, I dig out whatever Madden variety I have to fool around with it's time-wasting foolishness. Used to be Madden 01 had a solid run for half a decade, because usually I buy last year's game when this year's comes out. But Madden 08 (Vince Young's career was ruined by the cover) has been pretty enjoyable, so I probably won't even look for Madden 09 this year. My involvement with Madden though, is probably about as minimal as possible, because I don't like spending an hour per game to actually play the shit out. At one point, I had reduced myself to only being the GM and picking the players every year or signing free agents, and all I'd do is let the game sim any playoff games the Redskins won and watch them in the background as I worked on other projects on my laptop. But this time, cranking up the game, I decided even that was too much, so all I did was sim seasons, and hire the coaches, and let any Redskins playoff games sim in full while I half-watched and worked on other projects on my laptop. Oddly enough, I've found this highly enjoyable, most likely because fake computer Redskins, about 20 years into my franchise, became a very successful organization, continuously contending for the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, in real life, it's more of the same Dan Snyder-related frustrations, with no sign of ever getting better since he's a very wealthy man and has access to finest health care around and will in all likelihood outlive me, making my adult life of football emotional attachment a complete waste of my time, and actually shortening my lifespan honestly, considering how worked up I get.
I have to say, after a few NBC games this year of the NFL, I miss John Madden. I'm not joking either. I think his reputation for saying stupid shit was overblown, because he always said stupid shit. I think what killed Madden off was not so much Madden becoming more senile but him not working with Pat Summerall anymore, who had that deadpan play-by-play style of a golf announcer. Once Madden was paired up with Al Michaels, it was over, because Michaels believes his own P.R. too much about being an all-time great, which he used to be, and he's always making corny ass jokes or telling stories that really aren't all that interesting. This was what killed Madden, because when playing off some schmoozy asshole telling corny jokes like a wedding reception, Madden seemed forced and cornier by attachment.
I saw him sitting there at the Cowboys game with former President Bush though. You know them dudes were talking about some food. Plus, what a fucking dumbass Jerry Jones is.
Oh, in my Madden interactions this time, I am in year 22 or so of the 30-year maximum, and after that runs it's course I'm sure I'll think up some other dumb, time-intensive, obsessive-compulsive way to use the game to kill off my life. I could list a few other "ideas" I've done through Madden football, but it kinda embarrasses me to think about it, much less admit it to computerized strangers.
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