EA to remove ‘inappropriate’ NFL game emote

EA Sports will remove a touchdown celebration from Madden NFL 23 after it was found to be inappropriate following the collapse of an NFL player.

EA Sports has said it’s removing a touchdown celebration emote from Madden NFL 23 following the collapse of an NFL player on the field last week.

The touchdown celebration emote in question has the scoring player character lie on the ground while another character pretends to perform CPR on them and a third character pretends to jolt the player with a defibrillator.

It comes after Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin collapsed on field due to cardiac arrest following a tackle from Cincinnati Bengals player Tee Higgins last week. Trainers and emergency personnel rushed to the field to perform CPR and use a defibrillator, making the in-game emote highly inappropriate.

Hamlin was released from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center earlier this week, and is reportedly making good progress on his recovery.

Damar Hamlin suffered from cardiac arrest during an NFL game last week, but is reportedly making a good recovery. Photo: Timothy T Ludwig / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

In a statement made to CBS Sports, EA said that it was “taking steps to remove the celebration form Madden NFL 23 via an update in the coming days”. The emote has been in the game for over three years, according to Polygon, and is seemingly based on real-life touchdown celebrations. Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith came under fire for performing a similar touchdown celebration following the incident with Hamlin, but told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that it was “unintentional” and wasn’t intended to make light of the situation.

The Madden NFL series has been published by EA Sports for over thirty years, with the first game, John Madden Football, releasing on the Apple II computer in 1988. It has since become a yearly franchise, with over a dozen developers working on the series throughout its time on the market.

The Madden series has been around for over thirty years. Picture: EA Sports

EA Sports recently signed a $45 million sponsorship deal with Spain’s top soccer division, LaLiga, for its upcoming EA Sports FC game. The game will be the first game in over two decades not to carry FIFA branding, after the partnership between EA and FIFA came to an end earlier this year.

In one last victory for EA’s branded soccer games, though, EA’s FIFA 23 once again predicted the World Cup winner for the fourth time in a row. The team behind the game ran a series of simulations to correctly predict that Argentina would win the 2022 World Cup.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.