Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been added to Madden NFL 21 for the first time since 2016, after EA Sports reached out to the player directly in order to secure rights to his likeness. The two-time WAC offensive player of the year is available as a free agent in Franchise mode, where he commands an 81-overall rating.
“Colin Kaepernick is one of the top free agents in football and a starting-calibre quarterback,” the publisher said in a statement. “The team at EA Sports, along with millions of Madden NFL fans, want to see him back in our game. We’ve had a long relationship with Colin through Madden NFL and worked through our past soundtrack mistakes.” This is a reference to when the publisher censored the player’s name in a song included as part of the soundtrack for last year’s game.
Kaepernick hasn’t played a snap in the NFL since the 2016 season, when he made the decision to kneel during the national anthem in order to protest against police brutality and the way the United States “oppresses black people and people of colour”. This ultimately resulted in him losing his job, but recent events have prompted NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to admit the league “should have listened sooner”.
Because of Kaepernick’s situation, EA Sports had to work independently with the player in order to include him in the game. You’ll also be able to add him to your roster in Play Now mode if you don’t fancy your team’s real-world starting quarterback. “We look forward to seeing Colin on Madden NFL teams everywhere,” the publisher concluded.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 54
Good. Granted, this is a horrible case of EA trying to curry favour after the atrocious launch of Madden 21 but as one of most talented free agents of all time, it’s nonsense that he wasn’t signed or represented in game. Hilarious seeing these execs do complete 180s, showing they have zero motivations outside economics.
Added him on PS3 by the look of his character model.
Good to see him back, but the rating is a bit ridiculous, and makes a bit of a mockery of all the ceremony they build around the Madden Ratings Adjuster nonsense.
He's one of the best-rated QBs in the game!
Purely a political/woke move. Not a fan. He's not on a team, why include him?
Easy prediction: I'm going to come back to this article within 24 hours and see random strangers throwing personal insults and ugly crap at one another because of this. Push Square would be wise to just lock the comments for this article now.
@RBMango Everyone's going to be polite and considerate, I'm sure!
@Avenger1030 To be fair, he's still not actually on any team in the game. You can just choose to sign him for your franchise if you want to.
And with that rating, it might actually be a good decision!
At least this is one thing they didn't just copy and paste from last year.... progress?
Always felt that the league was way too harsh on him for his actions. Not saying I agree or disagree, that, I shall keep to myself. But he is a talented QB that deserves a starting spot on quite a few qb needy teams right now.
Having him in the game is perfectly fine. But he’s rated higher now than he was the last time he actually played!
@get2sammyb I sure hope so. Prove me wrong, people!
Why is he rated so high? Even I know he was a decent unextraordinary player at best. Reeks of bogus politics and nothing else.
@ShogunRok That character model is rough. It looks like they molded his face out of Play-Doh and pressed it against glass.
Oof!
They can have a "people whined and we still came out on top" party.
EA should have put him behind a "surprise mechanic", so people can really loose it.
@3MonthBeef That's not how our First Amendment works. The government didn't do anything to silence him or his beliefs, which is what that amendment to our constitution protects against. It's meant to prevent the government from silencing words, opinions, or any speech that isn't directly inciting violence, or is packaged with violence. You have the freedom to say whatever you want to, or otherwise express yourself however you want to, but you're not immune to social consequences just because you're exercising your first amendment right.
Also, Kaepernick is doing fine. He's got a Nike deal, and he's in a Madden game. The propaganda machine works both ways.
@3MonthBeef you're falsely tying the NFL to the American government. The government didn't restrict his speech or get him fired. The NFL (or the teams, however it works), choses to sign who they want. Naturally the teams most likely didn't want the baggage and preachiness of Kaepernick to draw negative attention, so he wasn't signed.
The only one suppressing his speech was the NFL. Not the US government.
Sorry @get2sammyb
@Constable_What well said!
@Avenger1030 They include free agents all the time, every year. This reaction by your says a lot more about you than ea...
@3MonthBeef Bizarre that apparently kneeling during a bit of music is anathema. It’s not like he jumped around firing an AK-47 into the air and screamed obscenities.
@Constable_What, @Avenger1030 I reread @3monthbeef comment several time to make sure, and unless they edited it, they are not talking about the government or first amendment.
Just a passing judgement on American culture that claim to be the "land of the free" but that is only true until you dare bring notice that not all of us are free, then some people get uncomfortable and do their best to erase you.
@Tharsman Second paragraph. First and second sentence.
You can say almost whatever you want. It's guaranteed on the federal level. Anything else is a BROAD generalization on the American people.
Which is plain downright ignorant.
@Constable_What All I see in that paragraph is:
"America: Land of free where you can express yourself however you want. Or so it claims."
"land of the free", there is no "free speech" mention. "Land of the free" is indeed a fantasy that is sold to immigrants about how America, as a nation and as its people, supposedly will embrace and accept everyone. Nothing about laws, nothing about government.
Ignorant is thinking that "land of the free" has any basis on reality, but i wont get onto that because this website is NOT the place to go into that discussion.
@Constable_What It’s a comment about American culture and the massive hypocrisy of its tenets of freedom when it was both built off the back of slaves and still only recognises the freedoms of certain people who look a certain way. The US also have a history of this sorta thing, they love a good blacklist, and I’m not talking about so called ‘cancel culture’.
@Tharsman Well you already had that discussion. You're right it's not the place.
First thought that ran through my mind when I saw that pic was "Is that Sr Pelo?"
Didn't he try out for some teams last year and nobody signed him. How is he an 81?? Loll
Holy crap they actually censored this guy's name for a song in the game?! Just... wow. He's a bigger man than I am if he's willing to have anything to do with the league or its properties at this point.
I still wonder if it’s true that Colon knelling was in protest, not because of police brutality, at least initially, but actually it started over not getting a lot of play on the field. He had problems with a teammate over a women (Colin was in the wrong, allegedly!), so the coach had him sitting on the bench, as punishment, I’m guessing. That turned into this whole mess. I’ve only heard it from independent podcast. It’s never caught on in the media. 🤷🏾♂️
Lol sad. This guy won’t kneel for the anthem but will wear Nike made with child labour.
@Constable_What " The government didn't do anything to silence him or his beliefs, which is what that amendment to our constitution protects against."
They actually did. They didn't use any of their explicit power, but they did use their implicit power, by calling out for him to be fired, by throwing insults his way. Even if you don't enforce your power as a president for example, you're still in a position of power through what you're saying. It's actually what the definition of propaganda is too: "ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause"
The only issue I have is how highly he's rated. It feels like everyone has forgotten his last year in the league where he was dismal, he couldn't even hold off Blaine Gabbert!
@outsider83 You know why it didn't caught on in the media? Because it's fake. Don't believe something you cannot find any source for.
I was wondering what happened to Fellaini.
@Fenbops Yeah, how dare he kneel during the anthem? Such a horrible person.
@AgentMantis Really wondered where they based those stats on, he has never been this high rated in previous NFL games. That being said, good on him for being in this game
@Jaz007 "unextraordinary"
You learn a new word every day...
Pffft, Derek Carr is better than this guy.
@naruball hey I’m just pointing out that he, like many ‘woke’ celebrities, are complete hypocrites.
@3MonthBeef the NFL is a business. His actions caused millions to stop watching. They made a business decision to save themselves the ongoing financial loss.
In contrast, Nike is a business and used his name to make massive financial gains.
It wasn’t so much about free speech as it is about money I would imagine.
@NYJetsfan123. No doubt playa.as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.i will take him.word up son
@Constable_What well said
@nessisonett It's incredible how "woke" you really are. You are the person that Nike was targeting when they gave Kap $61 million dollars for nothing and who EA was also targeting when they added this bad player to Madden with inflated stats.
Madden should add some other activists to the game and not just Kap. In fact I find it discriminatory that they don't have any females representation. Maybe they could add Greta Thunberg?
@Ryno Greta Thunberg doesn’t play football. Kaepernick does. MLB The Show has over 250 free agents in the game. It’s not hard for them to just add Kaepernick.
@nessisonett Kap doesn't play football, he is an activist. If he was a football player he would be playing games this weekend.
@Ryno Are you honestly that thick? The whole point of this article is that he was blacklisted by the league, therefore not being able to play football. All he wants is to be able to play.
@nessisonett Are you honestly so "woke" you can't see what a joke adding activist Kap to Madden 21 is? He wasn't "blacklisted." He sucked as a Quarterback and is a clown show.
@Kidfried it very well could be a false rumor. The thing is, given how his taking a knee turned into this huge national mess, and the different ways this was used to stir up discord, I could easily see how nobody wanted to touch on that, in mainstream media. Now, what makes me think that there’s truth to what I’ve heard....his girl (wife?) Nessa, was dating Colin’s teammate the year before they got together. There are articles and pics of them together online. Colin also has problems with trying to steal other players women, and that’s why teams didn’t want him. He was too disruptive, ALLEGEDLY. 🤷🏾♂️
Edit: Colin and Nessa started dating in 2015. They went public in 2016. But there are articles about Nessa with Colin’s teammate from the same year.
@outsider83 What I read are assumptions that you can't back up with facts. Only arguments that don't make it "impossible". That's not the same as making it likely.
Santa Clause actually exists. I know, because he's my dad. Do you have any evidence proving I'm wrong? No. So, do you choose to doubt this fact until I give you proof, or will you tell your friends that you've probably talked to Santa Clause's kid today?
We don't know anything about their love life, we don't know anything about the coach and et cetera. So why spread a rumour about this person?
People, I heard outsider83 secretly is in love with Nessa. So now they are slandering Kaepernick online, in the hopes she will leave Kaepernick. I mean... it would explain why you are sharing this rumour, so it could very well be true.
Of course this ain't true, but you see how easy it is to make up conspiracy gossip about anyone? But is it fair? You may hate his guts, actions and viewpoints and even think he's bad at the sport, but Kaepernick is still a human person. And nobody deserves having falsehoods spread about them. And without any proof to back such a claim up, we should assume those things to be not true.
I know you live in a country in which spreading gossip and falsehoods about people has become normalcy. It's no surprise with a president who's more of a reality TV show star than anything else. Just a week ago he said that there was an airplane full of thugs in black clothes was on its way to the Republican Convention to disrupt it. It turned out to be untrue (quelle surprise!). It was just a rumour from someone online, who had no way to back it up. But it didn't stop Trump from spreading that rumor. That's irresponsible behavior. And even though that has become commonplace in the US... just try to be better than that.
Science.
Was not buying the game Anyway...it is the same game over and over! Please super mega baseball guys make a super mega football, basketball and hockey...PLEASE!!!!
@Kidfried Remember that the orange turd chump is also the crybaby who is a self-contradiction machine. Claims to be so oppressed by "radical commies" by being silenced, while openly calling for flag burning to be a 1 year prison sentence; the ultimate form of freedom of expression. Nothing hinges on symbolism, yet this dumb culture war has the right going mental, while ignoring real problems like covid-19 and an economic depression. The American extreme right only cares about freedom when they're in agreement, otherwise its time to crack down and oppress. Mix in all the corrupt corporatists, chump included and hyper-partisanship, and the US is further crumbling apart.
@NYJetsfan123 he pulled a bunch of nonsense with the NFL try outs earlier this year When they gave him a shot and he turned it into a circus. He does not deserve to play on any team, he’s just trying to increase his own celebrity status.
@nessisonett he does not want to actually play. If you followed his absurd saga, NFL gave him try outs and he backed out last minute becasue he couldn’t turn it into a political protest
@Oriion
I didn't ask.... So please don't push your opinion on me
EA I have four words for you. "Go Woke, Go Broke!"
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