Hundreds of thousands of children, teenagers, and adults across America will get it this holiday season.  Thousands already have it.  Even more have played it and if it maintains its popularity, it probably will be around in fifty years.  Madden, the football game for systems like Playstation and Xbox, has been one of the most popular and most competitive games in the past few years.

I remember playing Madden 64 on my Nintendo 64 when I was a teenager.  The playbooks were simple, the game play was straight ahead and it was easy to play.  Since then, the Madden series of video games has seen great advances in graphics, game play, and features.  One can develop a franchise, where players can be traded, ticket prices can be set, and practices can be held, in the newest Madden, Madden 2006.  During games, players can use the Hot Route and Playmaker ability, as well as changing the play at the line and shifting the blocking assignments.  Depth charts are consistently being changed and players try to find the weakness in the opposing defense or offense and try to exploit it.

I admit that playing Madden 2006 changes your opinion on professional and college football.  I constantly yell at the television set while watching football, screaming “What an awful play call!  How could you not run a reverse there?” or “I saw that coming from a mile away! The defensive line needed to shift, but it failed to! What are these guys doing out there?”  I always have to sit back and remind myself I’m not a football coach and I’m not as smart as the guys on the sidelines or in the booth.

But it raises this simple, yet complex question: if kids like me are playing these games at such a young age, reading simple defenses while on offense and changing the defensive formation when seeing what the offense is doing, what does it mean for the future?

Throughout the history of the NFL, as well as other sports, players have redefined the positions they play.  Coaches do something never seen before and it becomes accepted as the norm.  What affect will the Madden football games have on the NFL in the future?

Unlike the coaches in today’s NFL, kids and young adults have the ability to see every game played on television, have every stat imaginable at the click of a mouse, and can replay games with the use of VCRs and TiVo machines.  On top of that, ESPN’s Sportscenter and other networks’ halftime shows consistently review plays and give analysis to both NFL offenses and defenses.  People now have opportunities that the current coaches in the league never had.

What impact will the play of Madden have on the NFL in twenty years?  Thirty years?  Forty years?  With kids as young as 10 years old watching football every Sunday in the fall and winter and playing Madden in their spare time, it’s hard to imagine how many good offensive and defensive coordinators will grace football teams in thirty years.  A majority of the high school football players I know play Madden and love it: how much does Madden, along with their on-the-field football knowledge, affect the way they think about football?

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the most knowledgeable football fan and there’s an extremely slim chance I’ll ever got a job on a football team.  But what about that one kid who’s destined to become the best offensive coordinator in the NFL?  How much will Madden make on his future career?  Will the Madden series be the next thing to change football forever?

Comments, suggestions, criticisms, are always welcomed.