Everyone is looking for any kind of edge they can get in the NFL. Guys will watch extra film, lift the extra set, throw-down for a hyperbaric chamber. Whatever it takes to get bigger, stronger, faster and recover more quickly. All of that, or they just spend their time preparing for the game by “gaming”.
Wired Magazine says some of the guys with the craziest game are products of the video game generation. That they learned some of their best moves with a controller in their hand!
For instance, remember when Denver Bronco Brandon Stokley housed that deflected pass against the Bengals and ran parallel to the goal line before finally crossing it in Week 1? And you thought it was a savvy veteran move to run clock?! He admits it’s something he’d done hundreds of times before on Madden.
Then again, it’s not surprising to hear some of these guys learn the game by playing a video game. Have you seen a Madden game lately? Not exactly Tecmo Bowl. Mike Martz and Brian Billick are intimidated by the size of the playbooks. And if you’ve seen those jersey rocking gamer maniacs in the Winnebago, you know they can spot a cover three and disguise their blitzers better than half the coordinators currently working in the NFL.
Who says video games don’t lead to (learned behaviors)?! There’s probably a whole generation of middle-agers who are extremely skilled at dodging cars in the street, and jumping onto lily pads or blasting centipedes and asteroids. Give it another decade before a whole generation of Grand Theft Auto players become experts at urban crime and carjacking.
Talent and hard work will always trump sitting in “man caves” for hours at a time gaming. But the guys who do both, definitely have an edge! Because it’s pretty obvious who didn’t grow up playing Madden…the ‘Ol Gunslinger! Because if he had, he would have known to never to throw back over the middle late!
Then again, it’s not his fault there was no passing when he played Electronic Football as a kid. Just vibrating magnets that all washed to the center of the board.
