If It's in the Game, It's in the Game: T.J. Houshmandzadeh vs. Madden 10

NFL Football and John Madden have been coexisting for many decades, but in 2009 there will be no Madden in the booth calling games.

NFL Football and Madden NFL Football have also been coexisting for many years, but this year there will be no Madden game for Seattle Seahawks wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

Every year, the Madden video game franchise sells more than five million copies and is ranked in the top 10 for best-selling games of the year.

The majority of players in the game are rated pretty fairly, but there are a few that usually get the shaft and are graded lower than they should be rated.

In this year's version of Madden 10, Houshmandzadeh saw his overall player rating and freaked out.

He was rated a 91.

Usually a real NFL player sees his video game counterpart's rating and either smiles or doesn't really care, but not Houshmandzadeh, who is boycotting the game entirely.

What a silly thing to have a problem with.

Your rating is a 91, and there are probably many players in the NFL that would love their rating to be that high (if they even care that much).

Of course, some players have the ego that needs to be supported by a high Madden 10 rating, but freaking out because your player is rated a 91? That's a little uncalled for and unreasonable.

It makes you look extremely egotistical.

Yahoo! Sports has Houshmandzadeh saying, "I understand I averaged 10 yards a catch, but it's the offense, not me. I'm not playing Madden no more until they get my rating right. ... I used to be the best in the world at Madden. I'm going to miss not playing it, but until they do me right, I'm not playing it any more."

Of course, he will probably still play it...especially with the new online feature where two players can play on the same team against two other players on another team.

Now that's sounds fun!

See you online Housh, because you can't resist that which is Madden NFL Football.

Written by Daniel Wolf (who also writes for and runs Dawg Scooper: An Unofficial Cleveland Browns News Source.)