MeAngelo's Madden Obsession

Hall motivated by geek programmer's assessment

By CHRIS NEEDHAM

Updated 4:15 PM EST, Tue, Jun 2, 2009

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John Madden hates the Redskins. Well, at least his video game people do.

A few years after the Madden Football people gave long snapper Ethan Albright a rating so low that you'd think he was a Pop Warner player, the player raters have hammered a few other Skins.

The Skins feature three of the five biggest drops in ratings. Fred Smoot and Devin Thomas dropped 11 and 18 points respectively.

The overall biggest drop belongs to DeAngelo Hall. He fell from a 93 overall -- among the best in the league -- to a 68. From star to scrub, just like that.

MeAngelo isn't happy. He -- of course -- twittered about it:

"So i just found out that Madden killed my rating. Its all good after this season i'll be back at the #1 spot haha"

You'd think a player who just signed a bazillion-dollar contract on a team that finished last in its division and faded down the stretch after his acquisition would find some motivation in the team's performance. But it's the video game that has him cheesed off.

After ruminating on the news all day, he later tweeted, "Just chilling now i had to go to the mall and blow off some steam cause of that wack ass Madden [poop], but i'm good now."

He even practiced harder than usual, according to Redskins Blog:

"So it didn't take a genius to put together the aggressive, enthusiastic display on the practice field with the Twittered frustration, and after practice Hall confirmed my suspicions.

"'Ah, I'm feelin' good, man. We just keep trying to get better, but, yeah, I'm trying to blow off some steam with my Madden rating.'"

At least he realizes it's a game, right? "[H]opefully if I grab ten or twelve [interceptions], and get my respect back, my dignity back."

Damn that John Madden, stealing a man's dignity like that. He should be ashamed of himself.

(But if it really does work as motivation in-season, keep it up, Johnny!)

Chris Needham used to write Capitol Punishment. He misses his 2600.