Madden NFL 19 is a video game based off the National Football League (NFL) published by EA Sports. The game was released on August 10th, 2018 and features Antonio Brown of the Pittsburg Steelers as the cover athlete of the standard version and Hall of Famer, Terrell Owens on the ‘Hall Of Fame’ version. The game was received well by critics and gamers.
Madden NFL 19 did run into a little controversy with the game’s soundtrack. Big Sean’s song was edited removing Colin Kaepernick’s name from a verse that reads “You boys all cap, I’m more Colin Kaepernick.”. Colin Kaepernick was an NFL player for the San Francisco 49ers until his kneeling protest during the National Anthem. He was protesting police brutality and inequality and has paid a huge price by not being signed to any football team since 2016.
Madden NFL 19 is in the news again with a different kind of controversy, gun violence. Over the weekend, Madden NFL held a tournament in Jacksonville, FL where gamers from around the country met to compete with $1.25 million split over 4 reads. That’s a lot of money and good reason to pick up the gaming controls. This prize money was also the inspiration for carnage.
One player with no respect for the lives of other who was doing poorly at the tournament decided to kill as many as he could. The murderer described only as a 24-year-old white male took the lives of Elijah Clayton, who went by the handle of True_818, and Taylor Robertson who was known online as Spotmeplzz. He shot and wounded 9 other people. Then, like a coward, he shot himself.
It is terrible that an event that should be fun and about friendly competition was tarnished with murder. Gamers lost friends, family members, thumbs and blood. In a time when doctors and therapist are calling for people to get off social media and interact with one another, is there a safe place? Can people gather without the real fear that a killer walks amongst them and could snap at any moment for no good reason? I don’t know the answer to this, we can’t lock ourselves inside but these consistent mass shootings make it sound like the safest place to be.
