It's in the Game - Madden NFL w/ The Duo!

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[00:01:15] Deontay, welcome back, fellas.

[00:01:18] What's up, man? Appreciate you for having us on again, man.

[00:01:21] You know, we had to come in for the video games last time.

[00:01:24] It was for sports-related content and, you know,

[00:01:27] we had to tap in on the Madden episode, bro.

[00:01:30] Of course, of course, man. Thank you for having us.

[00:01:33] Already. See, Dane, to me, I saw, okay, Madden, it's in the game.

[00:01:38] We're doing a docuseries about it.

[00:01:40] We're going to be talking about episode one today.

[00:01:42] And just kind of giving people an overview of what we're going to talk about.

[00:01:45] But when I saw it, I thought, yeah, we can talk about this.

[00:01:48] But this really feels like something the duo should be talking about.

[00:01:51] So, Dane, correct me if I'm wrong.

[00:01:52] Y'all are a perfect pair to talk about Madden.

[00:01:58] How much time do you have?

[00:01:59] We got time, baby. Let's get comfortable. Let's talk.

[00:02:02] If you take a look in the historical context of what Madden has done to our collective lives,

[00:02:07] in terms of just the brotherhood, inspiring us to always keep that competitive fire, you know?

[00:02:16] And then on top of that, just remembering to have fun and it's in the game.

[00:02:20] So that word, it means it's not just a name. I think it's a lifestyle.

[00:02:26] I think Madden itself is a lifestyle, but I'm not going to suck up too much of the air about this beautiful thing that we call Madden.

[00:02:33] What about you, D.A.J.?

[00:02:35] Yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head.

[00:02:37] Just like, I think for our generation, like 90s babies, Madden is synonymous with the game, obviously.

[00:02:47] But like they kind of touched on it in the first episode, a couple of people that they interviewed.

[00:02:53] Just like the culture of what Madden meant in like growing up and being with your friends late night, playing video games.

[00:03:02] Like it's just something that, you know, a lot of people like that are into sports video games can relate to.

[00:03:09] And just like it's synonymous with friendship, like they said brotherhood.

[00:03:14] Like I remember. Like, I'm an avid gamer, Dane and I are avid gamers.

[00:03:20] We like literally play the game today.

[00:03:22] We've been playing, you know, especially since like it since I moved out east to Connecticut and like just keeping the connection with your hometown people.

[00:03:31] You know what I'm saying? It's just like it's something that you can't really experience unless you're in it.

[00:03:37] And I think like my brothers were the ones that put a controller in my hand when I was like four years old.

[00:03:47] And, you know, back then you do the trick where you think you plug the game in for you.

[00:03:52] But you're not really plugged in.

[00:03:53] You make your little brother think the game is, but you're not.

[00:03:55] Exactly. And the first game I played was Madden 94 on the Sega Genesis.

[00:04:00] And there's still a picture of me holding the controller as a little kid, but I know we'll tap into that.

[00:04:04] But it's just synonymous with brotherhood, friendship, of course, the video game aspect of it, too.

[00:04:09] But all those things encompassing.

[00:04:11] Yeah, no, I'm definitely here to pick y'all's brains about your Madden story.

[00:04:15] I think that's way more interesting than what we saw in episode one.

[00:04:17] Don't get me wrong. We get a lot of some things and questions that we probably didn't have about Madden that we didn't know we needed to know that we're going to get answered in this episode.

[00:04:26] But we're here to talk about how we grew up and how we were playing Madden, how this really feels uniquely for our generation.

[00:04:33] Don't get me wrong. Video games obviously started before we were born.

[00:04:37] But the heyday really kicks in with us.

[00:04:40] You know what I'm saying? Like we will see the development of video games such as Madden, EA Sports as well.

[00:04:46] And we will see all of that kind of taking place when it was very primitive.

[00:04:49] You know, it wasn't it wasn't sexy.

[00:04:51] It was you got little dots moving on the screen left and right.

[00:04:54] But now now they got this is in different areas now.

[00:04:58] It's professional. OK, they are just seeing all the aspects that go into making the players move the way they do all the different aspects of the game with the attributes and stuff.

[00:05:07] I feel like you don't get that without our generation.

[00:05:09] You know what I'm saying? We grew up and we built this all of this.

[00:05:12] Did you see around here? This is it because of us.

[00:05:14] You know what I'm saying? So watching this was cool because I was like, hey,

[00:05:18] we really did grow up at the precipice of something that will go on to be so great.

[00:05:23] And so I definitely wanted to talk to you all about it for sure.

[00:05:26] I know you all are big football people. Definitely. Right.

[00:05:29] And so, Dane, my question for you first is how does football look if you didn't have Madden?

[00:05:34] You know what I'm saying? Would you be as invested in the sport in general if you didn't have a video game that you could go home

[00:05:40] and kind of simulate your own version of it on a daily basis?

[00:05:45] You know what? That's a great question.

[00:05:47] So without with the absence of Madden in my life, not to be dramatic here, but there is a handful of friendships.

[00:05:55] And I say friendships lightly, but a handful of family that I would not have to this day if not for Madden.

[00:06:02] Whether it's meeting one of my lifelong friends, Demonic, in a Madden tournament at my residence life, you know, dorm hall.

[00:06:09] Or whether it's finally feeling inspired. You know, I think I'm going to try to play football in middle school because of, you know,

[00:06:15] watching Madden and of course Friday night lights.

[00:06:18] Or, you know, running into a situation where I have a girlfriend, now wife,

[00:06:24] that ends up buying me this particular game as a surprise because she knows I like games.

[00:06:28] Like stuff like that is kind of just what brings it full circle and puts it in a bow.

[00:06:31] But it's, you spoke to a great deal and I might be getting ahead of myself in terms of what our generation paid.

[00:06:40] Having to be in the same room or the same vicinity to play these games,

[00:06:44] to have all sorts of different connective systems or different cords and stuff to connect everybody,

[00:06:49] to have a lawn party, if you will.

[00:06:51] And then to now, not even having to be in the same freaking country to play, you know,

[00:06:57] a friend or to just shoot the breeze and over a game of a meaningless game of Madden.

[00:07:03] So I think more than anything, the purpose without Madden,

[00:07:07] I'd say there's a gap, a community of space that's missing from my, you know,

[00:07:14] childhood to adulthood and just the way that we're able to navigate and find common ground

[00:07:18] and just use it as a venue to just kick back.

[00:07:22] Yeah. Deontay made a good point earlier.

[00:07:25] He talks about how he's moved away and yet you're still able to play the video game.

[00:07:29] But we come from a time, Dan, like you said, we are, we used to be in the same room.

[00:07:33] You know what I'm saying? We used to be sitting next to each other playing these games.

[00:07:36] And now you think people get heated online?

[00:07:39] Oh, it used to get hot in them rooms.

[00:07:41] Okay. So yeah, Deontay, I know, I know you grew up playing Madden.

[00:07:46] Like you said, 94 is one of the early, earlier ones you remember just looking at,

[00:07:50] but just think about the way the game has evolved from sitting next to your brothers playing this game

[00:07:54] to now you and Dane playing from across the country.

[00:07:59] Yeah, it's amazing.

[00:08:00] And like one thing that was pointed out in the first episode of this documentary was John Madden himself.

[00:08:07] And I remember like they did a Madden, I can't remember who did it,

[00:08:12] but somebody had did a Madden like life documentary on him.

[00:08:16] And it was kind of the same sentiments of when this game was brought to him by EA was like,

[00:08:22] like if you're going to put my name on it, like it has to be realistic.

[00:08:25] It can't be no seven on seven. It needs to be 11 on 11.

[00:08:29] And like one thing that like when I wanted to play the game first,

[00:08:35] it was just wanting to play obviously because my big brothers were playing it.

[00:08:39] That was their game.

[00:08:39] And I wanted to hang out with my big brothers and I was just like five, six at the time.

[00:08:44] But then it became like learning about football and like growing up in a football household.

[00:08:50] Like that's what we do.

[00:08:51] We watch football, we play football.

[00:08:53] And so this was before I could even step on a football field myself.

[00:08:57] This is how I learned to play the game, right?

[00:09:00] You, you, you, you play the video game version to learn about positions and plays and players.

[00:09:07] And when you finally step on the field, like for me, I,

[00:09:11] the first time I played organized sports was like,

[00:09:15] I think I was maybe in the first grade.

[00:09:18] So maybe like six years old.

[00:09:19] And like, I was ahead of kids that, you know, hadn't had the video games,

[00:09:24] didn't know what they were doing.

[00:09:25] It's like, Hey man, I seen this on this game.

[00:09:27] Like I know what the quarterback does.

[00:09:30] You know what I'm saying?

[00:09:30] I know what the running back does.

[00:09:32] I know what is in that position.

[00:09:33] So I was kind of ahead of the curve.

[00:09:36] And for a lot of kids, you know, that had the opportunity to play the game,

[00:09:41] was ahead of the curve, you know, being able to play at an early age was helpful.

[00:09:45] So even as the game evolved, I think like the player themselves evolved to like make,

[00:09:53] or should I say the studio tried to make it more realistic as possible.

[00:09:57] And now we're in 2024 and it's like, like looking more and more realistic than ever.

[00:10:03] I mean, we still have our gripes about the game, but I think it's so much more than the game itself

[00:10:09] because it's been a teacher.

[00:10:11] It's been a, like we always been harking on, like it's a culture thing, a family thing,

[00:10:17] a bonding thing.

[00:10:18] So it's all of those things put together.

[00:10:21] Yeah.

[00:10:22] It's funny because I didn't grow up playing football.

[00:10:24] I was going to play basketball, play baseball.

[00:10:25] I played soccer for a little bit, but I never got to play football.

[00:10:28] So Madden was my only way to ever play.

[00:10:30] You know, it was like, I can never see myself in those pads because it just never happened.

[00:10:35] You know, like whatever the case, but I was a little guy, you know,

[00:10:37] my mom wasn't trying to get me in the, get beat up on the, on the football field.

[00:10:40] So like I was focusing on other sports and stuff, you know, but then you get mad and you say,

[00:10:46] okay, now I can play.

[00:10:47] And then we got to the point where we could create our own players and put yourself in the game.

[00:10:50] You know how that went, the attributes sky high, you know, 99 all across,

[00:10:55] the boy, you out here doing some amazing things as a quarterback, you know?

[00:10:59] Yeah.

[00:11:00] So it really was something that, you know, it allowed people to transport themselves into

[00:11:04] a world that was like, it seemed like it couldn't be like unattainable, right?

[00:11:07] Like it's like in my real life, I might not be able to do this.

[00:11:10] I might not ever play pro football, but I didn't play enough Madden to where I could tell you

[00:11:13] how all the bells and whistles work.

[00:11:14] So it's definitely fun to think about, especially knowing that there are some people who grow up

[00:11:18] and they don't have a lot of family.

[00:11:25] Madden is, uh, as a game is probably one of the ones that most, I will, I won't speak

[00:11:30] for all black folks, but most, uh, young black men around our age probably grew up with some

[00:11:35] type of connection to that game.

[00:11:36] And so it's so cool that they are finally doing a docu-series on it, especially now with

[00:11:41] all the different advances that have been made in technology, um, because it just doesn't

[00:11:45] look the same as it did back when it started.

[00:11:47] I mean, this thing goes way back to 1983, you know, where they're trying to make this a

[00:11:53] computer game.

[00:11:54] Now, Deontay, did you know that Madden originally started off a computer game?

[00:11:57] Cause I learned so much in this docu-series and I got some questions.

[00:12:01] I, I did not know that.

[00:12:04] Um, like my first, you know, iteration with the game was when it had already was on Sega

[00:12:10] Genesis back in 94, 93, but I was, you know, a young and to not understand it at that point,

[00:12:16] but I never knew it was on PC at first.

[00:12:18] So to see, uh, for, for their betterment, obviously them switch over and realizing PC wasn't the

[00:12:25] move.

[00:12:26] We got to go to console was, uh, nice to see.

[00:12:29] And like, and another salute to, to John Madden, because in the first episode, they kind of touch

[00:12:36] on how he wasn't pleased with that first iteration of the game.

[00:12:41] And like him and his agent were kind of thinking about, Hey, like these other companies are coming

[00:12:47] at us.

[00:12:48] Um, maybe we should, you know, decide if we want to switch up, you know, but, uh, the agent

[00:12:54] had mentioned how John Madden was a loyal guy and it was like, yeah, they'll figure it out.

[00:12:58] And they eventually did.

[00:12:59] And I know you'll probably tap into it, but I didn't even know about the story.

[00:13:02] I had heard of the, uh, Joe Montana football, but I didn't know how the back channels had

[00:13:09] to, how they had to kind of grimey.

[00:13:13] That's crazy, bro.

[00:13:14] Filthy work.

[00:13:16] Yeah.

[00:13:16] Hey, this is, this is some grimy stuff.

[00:13:18] I mean, we can talk about it.

[00:13:19] Uh, so, you know, Madden starts off as an idea for a computer game and then like, all

[00:13:24] right, that's not really working.

[00:13:25] Let's, let's switch it over to cartridges.

[00:13:27] Cause there's a company that called Sega that's doing these cool things with cartridges.

[00:13:31] And then, um, well, we got to figure out a way to make Sega take us on and we can't

[00:13:36] really figure that out because, um, we don't really know how to make these cartridges.

[00:13:40] So now we have to go and reverse engineer a Sega and basically steal the technology so

[00:13:46] that we can create our own and sell it back to them.

[00:13:49] Dang that.

[00:13:50] This is crazy.

[00:13:51] So, so funny that you mentioned that because as they're going through the process of not

[00:13:59] programming, but I guess the programming in a sense and taking things positive, man,

[00:14:04] was that was me and my cousins and my friends when the, when the Sega fell off the top of

[00:14:07] the daggone dresser and then it broke.

[00:14:09] So we had to put the thing back together and you had to figure out why, you know, this

[00:14:12] went this way.

[00:14:13] And then somebody next door had a Sega.

[00:14:14] So we had to bring that over and take it apart together.

[00:14:17] So we know how to put it together.

[00:14:18] I'm like, man, they just like me.

[00:14:20] I'm going to be a software engineer.

[00:14:22] I'm thinking about it now, but think about being so driven by the sport of football that

[00:14:30] clearly a lot of these guys never played.

[00:14:32] And they're very adamant that, you know, this is not what we do for a living.

[00:14:34] We don't understand that, you know, the IQ behind football.

[00:14:38] We don't understand the culture about football, but I know how to, I know how to write code

[00:14:42] and I know how to build this into that.

[00:14:44] And I know computers really well.

[00:14:45] So these guys were so driven behind the sport that they didn't even participate in just

[00:14:50] for the sure ability of, or possibility of being successful and being recognized.

[00:14:56] So to that, to me, having that layer peeled back and just seemed like, man, these dudes,

[00:15:01] and the thing about it was they weren't even sure if it was going to work.

[00:15:04] And just the level of, all right, guys, we don't have to get this out the mud and everybody's

[00:15:10] in this little confined space.

[00:15:11] And they said only a certain amount of people were able to enter this specific room where

[00:15:16] they were deconstructing the game and trying to figure out based on, you know, program

[00:15:20] languages and all those types of code that were in the games and how to make it work.

[00:15:24] So that part to me was fascinating in that sense, but also just, it spoke to the level of

[00:15:29] determination that that team had.

[00:15:30] And, you know, they may mention about a number of times that, you know, the lights or the

[00:15:36] building, the lease to the building itself, you know, this could be all over with in

[00:15:39] a matter of weeks.

[00:15:40] Like, so they were really just living on a hope and a prayer at that point.

[00:15:44] But that, you know, that they had that dog, they had that dog.

[00:15:48] They know that they had these competitors and the enemy of my enemy is my friend type of

[00:15:52] situation.

[00:15:52] So that was their play, which I wish they would have fleshed it more, you know, fleshed

[00:15:55] it out more.

[00:15:55] But I'm getting ahead of myself.

[00:15:57] They might, you know, get to that later on down the road.

[00:15:59] But to me, it was a fascinating piece to see just how grimy the game is because, again,

[00:16:04] they played out this watered down product and they say, oh yeah, these guys only had 13

[00:16:09] plays and they were all blown away and fascinated.

[00:16:11] Meanwhile, they got like, you know, 90 plays on this side.

[00:16:14] So I'm like, man, that's grimy, but that's smart.

[00:16:18] And, you know, this is the reason why these guys are in the room making these kinds of

[00:16:22] decisions because they're forward thinking.

[00:16:24] They were literally thinking two and three steps ahead of the competitor.

[00:16:28] Yeah.

[00:16:29] We are like pioneers of, you know, yeah, for sure.

[00:16:33] Yeah.

[00:16:34] Trip Hawkins shows up, right?

[00:16:35] And he's the president and he's like, I really want to make a sports game.

[00:16:39] I want to make a football game.

[00:16:40] And we have other sports games.

[00:16:41] They do show us like the Larry Bird and Dr. J games and stuff that like this before

[00:16:46] our time.

[00:16:47] But I'm like, I've seen, you know, like I've heard whispers I've seen in the museums, you

[00:16:50] know, where they keep these in the archives that these games exist.

[00:16:53] But then when you see the graphics and stuff, you're like, yeah, they weren't doing nothing

[00:16:56] back then.

[00:16:58] It was so ahead of the time, you know, just to have these little, little pieces barely

[00:17:03] moving, but they had the personalities of Dr. J, some of the moves of Larry Bird.

[00:17:07] And they're like, okay, how do we do that for football?

[00:17:10] But Deontay, you know this better than most people.

[00:17:12] Football has a lot more players than a basketball team we're having.

[00:17:15] Each player, they want to have their own personality at certain points.

[00:17:19] So now they have to figure out a way to not only make this game, you know, something

[00:17:23] that people want to play, but also make it honest to, you know, each of the positions

[00:17:27] that are on the field.

[00:17:28] Because I think for the average viewer, they look at maybe like the quarterback, the wide

[00:17:33] receiver, the running back.

[00:17:34] I think, okay, these are the ones I pay attention to, right?

[00:17:36] The people are scoring.

[00:17:37] But there are so many other like moving parts on here.

[00:17:40] They talk about it like it's chess, Deontay.

[00:17:43] Yeah.

[00:17:44] And like, if it, for me, I would be like, if I was a programmer or engineer in that time,

[00:17:51] it's just like having the pressure of a guy whose name, like a legend in the sport at the

[00:17:58] time, and he still is a legend in John Madden and having the pressure of like, all right,

[00:18:02] how do we make this successful?

[00:18:04] If we, one, already struck out before with the PC version that he was not, you know,

[00:18:10] saying like not feeling at all, knowing this is our last shot and to make it, you know,

[00:18:16] for that time as realistic.

[00:18:18] And, you know, the 3D for them at that point was fairly new to the video gaming process.

[00:18:24] Like, that's not easy.

[00:18:25] Like, I kind of feel like, well, I think it was, I want to say it was Tripp that was talking

[00:18:32] about how, even before they started, you know, the actual video game process of how he had

[00:18:38] the, the, he had a video or excuse me, a football board game per se with math.

[00:18:44] And like, I thought that was pretty.

[00:18:46] Dungeons and Dragons, yeah.

[00:18:48] Right.

[00:18:49] Like the Dungeons and Dragons and football.

[00:18:50] I thought that was pretty interesting because like, when you think about it, when you actually

[00:18:54] put those, like, not the actual formula of it, but like, if you're thinking mathematically

[00:19:01] and trying to incorporate that into the football game itself, that, that makes sense to like,

[00:19:08] all right, a player has to be in this certain position and has to do this action for it to

[00:19:14] resemble something that, you know, the, the player might deem as realistic.

[00:19:20] If that, if y'all know what I'm talking about, but it's just like, yeah, those little intricacies

[00:19:23] that you have to think about during, like, we talk about late eighties, early nineties,

[00:19:30] like we're not, we're in 2024 now, obviously.

[00:19:33] But like back then you had to like, kind of think outside the box, like how, how are we

[00:19:38] going to duplicate this?

[00:19:39] And I think their best move was, you know, like we had just talked about reverse engineering

[00:19:44] and trying to get it as realistic as possible.

[00:19:47] And I feel like, I mean, obviously they hit the spot at that time, but just like, it's

[00:19:52] not, I assume it's not easy to do.

[00:19:55] And they kind of described that in there, but yeah, man, it's, it's incredible to think about

[00:19:59] and like, they, I like even how they, at least the first episode, how they kind of went forward

[00:20:08] and back in time.

[00:20:11] Because I think that's important because now like Madden is so bigger than, I won't say

[00:20:21] light, but it's so huge right now in 2024.

[00:20:23] It has been forever to kind of go back to the humble beginnings of like, okay, how do we

[00:20:28] get here?

[00:20:29] Like giving us the flashback, you know, forwards kind of like this.

[00:20:34] I feel like they were shattering, like you had mentioned, like how were they able to

[00:20:40] make it seem realistic back in the early nineties and then like how they're doing it

[00:20:47] now, like motion capture, you know, all the computer analytics and things of that nature

[00:20:53] is very interesting to see.

[00:20:54] And like, and I, you know, I've seen them do the motion capture stuff, but I guess I didn't

[00:20:58] really realize, and I hope they go into this and further episodes.

[00:21:02] I didn't really realize like they have actors.

[00:21:07] They have to like for the motion capture part.

[00:21:10] They do it full contact, dang.

[00:21:14] Full contact, stunt coordinators, like taking hits.

[00:21:19] Like, I mean, you see it in the game, like, dang, you know, they gotta, somebody has to

[00:21:23] do that.

[00:21:24] Right.

[00:21:24] But then you see it like, hey, I'm not, I don't know if I'm signing up for that, you

[00:21:29] know, and kind of to get off the subject, but not on like, I don't know if y'all just

[00:21:34] saw on the news where there was a union that was just brought to fruition by the stunt or

[00:21:41] excuse me, the motion cap players that do 2K games.

[00:21:44] Like they're finally getting unionized and that's good for them because like looking at

[00:21:48] this doc in the first episode, like these dudes, they gotta be, you know, in shape and take

[00:21:55] hits.

[00:21:55] You know what I'm saying?

[00:21:56] And it's just crazy.

[00:21:58] But to go back to my regular point, I like how they kind of mirror the past with the present

[00:22:03] in the first episode and shadowing each other.

[00:22:05] I think that was a good part of the first episode.

[00:22:09] Oh yeah.

[00:22:10] And I definitely want to talk about more of the motion cap stuff because that's crazy.

[00:22:14] Just in and of itself, all the implications of just, I mean, imagine you go to work, this

[00:22:18] is your job and you didn't tour at ACL because you pretending to play football.

[00:22:22] You know what I'm saying?

[00:22:23] Like, no, like you out for the season because you pretending to play football and you know,

[00:22:28] in full, you know, like gear.

[00:22:31] It's crazy to think that, but when you go back, you're right.

[00:22:33] It all starts with trying to find a face and a name that's going to sell this product,

[00:22:37] right?

[00:22:38] You have football.

[00:22:39] Joe Montana already has a thing with Atari apparently.

[00:22:42] You know, I was like, okay, cool.

[00:22:44] That sounds all right.

[00:22:45] But to me, one of the smartest things they ever did is find John Madden.

[00:22:49] You know what I'm saying?

[00:22:50] Like as someone who, I grew up watching football.

[00:22:53] I know Madden's name more from the game than I do from football.

[00:22:57] You know, like by the time I was growing up watching it, it's like, he was like a commentator.

[00:23:01] He was doing commercials and stuff like that.

[00:23:03] He's on the later end of his career, you know, but Madden, his name will always be,

[00:23:08] you know, synonymous with this video game.

[00:23:10] And it touches so many lives over the years.

[00:23:12] Like I don't, he doesn't know at the time that this is going to be something that every

[00:23:16] little black boy going to have in their household.

[00:23:18] You know, that every conversation Madden gets talked about probably a billion times a day,

[00:23:22] just at elementary schools, high schools, middle schools, colleges, you know, and that's

[00:23:28] before grown folks.

[00:23:29] And now, you know, with video games being so accessible, I think back then they were thinking,

[00:23:33] games were for kids, you know, that kind of thing.

[00:23:35] But now everybody playing video games and they play them forever.

[00:23:38] And so having Don Madden as the face of this, and also he was 10 toes down on trying to make

[00:23:43] something that was good, you know, not just, you know, accepting any product.

[00:23:46] He's like, nah, I gotta like the game.

[00:23:49] It gotta be real.

[00:23:50] It's gotta have, it's gotta make football sense.

[00:23:52] It's, uh, it was the first step that they took, but I don't know if, you know, Joe Montana

[00:23:58] football ever takes off like Madden football does, you know, it just, it don't hit the

[00:24:02] same day.

[00:24:02] That's how, that's how I feel.

[00:24:04] Like, you don't even got the same ring to it.

[00:24:05] Oh, no, you're right.

[00:24:07] And the thing about it was Madden's representation was speaking with so much conviction.

[00:24:12] Like, Hey, y'all can't have my man's name out here on this.

[00:24:16] And you putting out this, whatever, whatever you thought this was supposed to be like,

[00:24:21] this is not impressive.

[00:24:22] Y'all can't have my man's associated with that.

[00:24:24] And he was standing 10 toes down with him.

[00:24:26] And it's like Deontay's mentioned, it was amazing.

[00:24:28] Them showing those present day clips and interviews, but also having that footage back in the day,

[00:24:33] them jokers knew they was, this was going to pop.

[00:24:35] Like that it was going to fly.

[00:24:36] It was going to do amazing things because while, I mean, obviously one, you know how,

[00:24:43] how hard it was to come across a good camera to record, you know, life events back then.

[00:24:48] But also too, you recording this stuff, this type of stuff in a corporate setting,

[00:24:52] like the old buddy said, he had a lady from budget or finance or whatever,

[00:24:55] right next to her, you know, trying to handle business calls.

[00:24:57] And they up here playing the game.

[00:24:59] You know how, I know how difficult it is.

[00:25:03] I'm thinking with my HR brain.

[00:25:04] I know how difficult it is right now to have phones in classrooms or just in a particular office

[00:25:08] or even social media apps.

[00:25:09] These brothers had like, you know, we ain't talking about the little small,

[00:25:12] oh, here you go camera.

[00:25:14] We talking about these jokers had the big old, this is just 25% of the camera.

[00:25:20] You probably had three other people holding, you know, equipment just to make sure we get

[00:25:22] the full shot.

[00:25:24] So they knew that they were on the, they knew they were on the horizon of something amazing

[00:25:29] just by how much historical footage they were able to put in there.

[00:25:32] And it's not like just five seconds of cut up.

[00:25:34] They're talking about, you know, 30, 45 seconds worth of material of John Madden playing the game.

[00:25:40] John Madden talking to them, hey, this is not football.

[00:25:43] And so it's, it's, it's amazing in that sense, but also he, John has some, including his son,

[00:25:49] John has some solid people around him protecting his legacy and his name.

[00:25:53] And I think more than anything that helped, that helped the guys over the edge.

[00:25:57] Just, you know, like, hey, let's take this an extra mile because we're going to make a,

[00:26:00] we're going to make history here, but also we're going to make this guy look even more amazing

[00:26:04] than what he already is and the legacy that he's laid out.

[00:26:06] Yeah.

[00:26:07] Deontay, he brought his playbook.

[00:26:09] He said, okay, look, the play is not even right.

[00:26:11] This man used the Oakland Raiders playbook.

[00:26:13] Like it was normal.

[00:26:14] I was like, I think you can just do that.

[00:26:16] But he did it.

[00:26:17] And that kind of sets the tone for what we get from video games now.

[00:26:21] You know, I remember when they started doing like ask Madden where he would just go pick

[00:26:25] a play for you, you know, and that was a thing you can do in a game.

[00:26:28] And so knowing that these were real plays that he saw with his own eyes and he was like putting

[00:26:33] into this game, it was very personal for him too.

[00:26:36] So he couldn't let it fail.

[00:26:39] Right.

[00:26:39] Oh yeah.

[00:26:40] Most definitely.

[00:26:41] And like when, when you, and I think that was a plus, like we talked about the pressure

[00:26:47] that Madden brought to the development team with, you know, his name on the line

[00:26:51] and things of that nature, but on the flip side of that, obviously, but it helped them,

[00:26:56] right?

[00:26:57] Like they want to make this game as realistic as possible.

[00:27:01] And why not, you know, have the playbook there that incorporates stuff from the real

[00:27:07] Oakland Raiders at that point, a Super Bowl winning coach right here.

[00:27:10] Like let's try to make this the most realistic 11 on 11 action as we can.

[00:27:16] And we have the guy here and you had mentioned it just having like his name on it, but like

[00:27:24] him being a part of the process a thousand times over helped this game succeed.

[00:27:31] And like, if you look at the game now, like they're like, they've added like, like stuff

[00:27:39] you see on Sunday, like the really weird little motion plays that the Miami Dolphins run with

[00:27:45] Cheetah.

[00:27:46] Like that's in the game now, like literally living up to the, it's in the game kind of,

[00:27:50] you know, mantra.

[00:27:51] Um, it started way back then, like with Madden and like, I feel like, you know, there's

[00:27:56] Grice with the game, you know, in, in 2024, but like they have continued to build on what

[00:28:05] he started back in, you know, the late eighties when he signed his name to this thing.

[00:28:10] Um, and it's still thriving today, you know, and it's a credit to, to him and those close

[00:28:19] that, you know, wanted to see this game succeed and have it to where it is today.

[00:28:24] Yeah.

[00:28:25] But we didn't have, we go through this without any hook hiccups, right?

[00:28:28] Like there were definitely some moments where we hit some walls.

[00:28:32] Uh, Nintendo shows up from Japan, like, Hey bro, guess what we got?

[00:28:35] Cartridges.

[00:28:37] And Trip was not filling the cartridge.

[00:28:39] Like, nah, we're going to stay on our PC, which is an argument.

[00:28:41] I think as a tellers all the time, right?

[00:28:43] Like that's an argument that they're having for centuries at this point.

[00:28:46] Right.

[00:28:46] Like PC versus, uh, versus a console, you know?

[00:28:50] And so they started back in and, um, because Trip doesn't want to, uh, go over to PC, they're

[00:28:57] making a game and it's just lackluster, you know, uh, like Dan was talking about his son

[00:29:00] tells him, Hey daddy, this game sucks.

[00:29:02] You know, uh, I don't like it.

[00:29:04] And so every video game in the company wanted out in the world, wanted out, nobody wanted

[00:29:09] to do this.

[00:29:10] And so they had brought in their arcade guru and he like, listen, we got to do the

[00:29:14] cartridges.

[00:29:15] We have, this has to happen.

[00:29:17] And when Matt, uh, they're not down with that, he ends up leaving and going to Activision,

[00:29:21] but then he comes back and like, all right, listen, I'll come back.

[00:29:24] On his next break.

[00:29:26] Right.

[00:29:28] That's when you show up someplace and you're like, Ooh, it's ghetto over here.

[00:29:30] Okay.

[00:29:31] All right.

[00:29:31] I don't like it.

[00:29:33] Yeah.

[00:29:35] So he comes back with a plan.

[00:29:36] He's like, listen, we got to do the cartridges thing.

[00:29:38] We got to.

[00:29:39] John is loyal to the soil.

[00:29:40] He ain't going nowhere.

[00:29:41] Um, but we're moving into hostile territory, right?

[00:29:44] Like nobody wants to see us making the console.

[00:29:47] And so we got to figure out a way to take down our joint enemy in Nintendo.

[00:29:53] And so, um, I did not know any of this day.

[00:29:56] And I had no clue that this is how we got basically video games as we know it today.

[00:30:00] They went in, they reverse engineered the Sega Genesis, and then they go in and basically

[00:30:05] negotiate with it and say, all right, look at this cool game that we basically made for

[00:30:09] your system.

[00:30:09] Wouldn't it be wild if we made it for somebody else and forced their head, you know, to where

[00:30:15] now they got to produce this game.

[00:30:16] But the caveat is you got to produce the Joe Montana game as well.

[00:30:20] And this is when it gets dirty, Dane.

[00:30:23] This is what I'm talking about.

[00:30:23] Like explain to me exactly what they did.

[00:30:27] Yeah.

[00:30:27] What did they do here when it comes to Joe Montana?

[00:30:30] Cause I feel like if I'm Joe Montana, I'm watching this like, what the hell?

[00:30:32] You know, like what, what, what do you think?

[00:30:34] I think the beautiful, the, the artistic piece of this plan or this, the, the production of

[00:30:41] this particular episode was showing the clip of, of Joe saying, Hey guys, we're working really

[00:30:46] hard to put out this new game.

[00:30:47] It's going to take us a while, but we appreciate your patience.

[00:30:50] Little did he know.

[00:30:52] Little did he know they were putting together a smorgasbord, a watered down bull job in order

[00:30:58] for them to be able to come out looking like, yeah, y'all might've had these little five

[00:31:02] little features over here in this game, but we got 17 on this product by our product.

[00:31:08] So the bacon switch, it's again, it's one of those things where you have to have very

[00:31:13] forward thinking people, um, and two steps ahead of their opponent.

[00:31:17] And it seems like these guys were not only confident in their ability to, with the misdirection,

[00:31:24] speaking of that, with the, with the misdirection, they pulled, they pulled the ball.

[00:31:28] Right.

[00:31:28] Running back taking off right here.

[00:31:29] We don't know where we, cameraman's full.

[00:31:31] He's looking at the running back quarterback has the ball.

[00:31:33] He's going this way.

[00:31:34] This is exactly what they did straight up misdirection.

[00:31:37] They didn't even know they got from that probably until this document documentary, you know,

[00:31:41] came out.

[00:31:41] So I don't know, but at the same time, it speaks to the level of their brilliance,

[00:31:45] their level of planning, their level of risk, because again, they talked about the,

[00:31:50] the reality, like, Hey, we could be facing some lawsuits guys.

[00:31:53] Like we could forget, like, you know, not having a job.

[00:31:56] We might not have freedom.

[00:31:57] Our bank accounts might be drained.

[00:31:59] And yeah, as we know it might not, you know, might not even make it to the light of day.

[00:32:02] And thankfully it worked out the way that it did when they were able to wow, uh, all

[00:32:06] those execs.

[00:32:07] Um, and again, it's, it speaks to the level of, um, the thing that I enjoyed the most about

[00:32:13] man.

[00:32:13] It's the root of it.

[00:32:15] The foundation is the presentation.

[00:32:16] The presentation is how they got their collective audience and their collective buy-in.

[00:32:21] They're like, you know what?

[00:32:22] Let's take a chance on these guys.

[00:32:23] But then like one, it showed me the, the, the, the Greek, not read because everybody's

[00:32:30] trying to make a dollar.

[00:32:30] I ain't gonna, I ain't gonna hit on that, but it speaks to the level of, I'm going to get

[00:32:35] my money for like, you know, Nintendo or the Sega's like, Hey, I'm offering this sweet

[00:32:39] deal.

[00:32:39] So what it's only less than 3% of, you know, whatever we're making, but it's still a deal.

[00:32:44] I'm like, dang, y'all.

[00:32:45] I mean, obviously you take on the, the, the manufacturing of the game, the distribution

[00:32:49] and all that type of stuff, but you only cutting them out this amount of money.

[00:32:52] And, you know, these guys are putting their lives, you know, work behind all this.

[00:32:57] And this is what they get, but they spoke to it.

[00:32:59] So, you know, they spoke to their plan that they, they, um, constructed.

[00:33:03] And then just the level of dissatisfaction, which I'm assuming we'll get into a little

[00:33:06] bit, um, their dissatisfaction with, or here's the, you know, two or however many, I think

[00:33:12] it was two or two or $3 million that they were going to offer for that particular product.

[00:33:15] And a lot of the guys, the engineers like, you know, hell no, like we ain't doing that.

[00:33:19] Like, hell no, we won't go type of dude.

[00:33:20] So, um, it was a brilliant plan, but, you know, there was a lot of risk, which I can respect

[00:33:25] and just the, the presentation that, uh, allowed them to, to woo the, the collective, um,

[00:33:32] support.

[00:33:32] Yeah.

[00:33:33] And this is 1990.

[00:33:34] And so they, they're like, okay, this game should be finished in like 18 months.

[00:33:39] Uh, they bring in Jim Simmons and he's got this game up and running in six months, you

[00:33:43] know, and they are not ready for this, but he's so inventive with the things that he does.

[00:33:47] Right.

[00:33:47] So they're used to seeing like football basically on a flat screen, you know, like, and they

[00:33:51] haven't figured out 3d yet.

[00:33:52] He slits the screen and then everything changes.

[00:33:57] And then his, his masterstroke, I'd say is when the players get further, they get smaller.

[00:34:02] And when they get closer, they get bigger and it just changed the way they looked at it.

[00:34:09] Yeah.

[00:34:10] For them at that point, people were like, Hey, that's just like how it is.

[00:34:14] When I watch it on TV, they go down the field, they get smaller.

[00:34:19] Right.

[00:34:19] Are they closer to the, to the TV?

[00:34:21] They closer to me, they bigger.

[00:34:22] And like, like you mentioned Simmons, like, and it seems like everybody else in the, in

[00:34:27] the episode that spoke on him called him a genius.

[00:34:31] And like, you know, like he literally changed the game and like when, when Dane spoke on it,

[00:34:39] having those kinds of minds and people collaborating, like it's, it's a win-win situation.

[00:34:45] And for them, um, it turned out great.

[00:34:48] And for Simmons, he was, I want to say, wasn't it like, he was like, yeah, they were like ahead

[00:34:55] of schedule or two months.

[00:34:56] I remember hearing two months.

[00:34:58] I can't quite remember.

[00:34:59] It was supposed to be done in 18 months and he did it in six, you know, like they like,

[00:35:05] yeah.

[00:35:06] Yeah.

[00:35:07] Yeah.

[00:35:07] Um, they were trying to get the screen to turn on and have one green dot.

[00:35:10] And then they looked up and he had the whole field on there.

[00:35:13] And I was like, God.

[00:35:15] Yeah.

[00:35:15] And it's funny when they took it to, when they took it to Sega, Sega's like, oh shit.

[00:35:21] Y'all did.

[00:35:22] Like they didn't have no choice.

[00:35:24] Right.

[00:35:25] But like, I, Hey, y'all, yeah.

[00:35:30] Like, you know, sign on this dotted line and, you know, um, but yeah, the Simmons, Simmons

[00:35:36] came clutch for the team there.

[00:35:39] Yeah.

[00:35:39] So they think that, um, they're going to take it in, sell it and everything's going to be

[00:35:44] cool, but they might get sued.

[00:35:45] They might get sued.

[00:35:46] This is highly illegal.

[00:35:47] You know, they stole it.

[00:35:48] They loaded up on cash.

[00:35:50] Just in case.

[00:35:51] They were getting ready.

[00:35:52] Yeah.

[00:35:53] Getting their, getting their stuff in a row.

[00:35:54] Cause they were like, okay, we might get sued.

[00:35:56] But if we, if this works, this will make us.

[00:35:58] And the, the, the negotiation basically goes, all right, we already had the Joe Montana thing

[00:36:03] happening.

[00:36:03] Y'all still got to make that happen, but we're going to let y'all make a mad thing too.

[00:36:07] And like Dan was saying, I mean, they switched and they completely like, it's like raggedy.

[00:36:12] It's got half the plays that they got.

[00:36:14] It's got none of the cool stuff.

[00:36:16] None of it probably got instant replay.

[00:36:18] You know what I'm saying?

[00:36:21] Now I want to talk about that because.

[00:36:25] That's some bullshit.

[00:36:26] I'm sorry.

[00:36:26] I didn't mean to say that.

[00:36:28] No, like if you're, if you're Montana, right.

[00:36:32] He, he must've not even cared at that point.

[00:36:35] He had to.

[00:36:35] He didn't know.

[00:36:37] Yeah.

[00:36:37] They got the check.

[00:36:38] Yeah.

[00:36:39] Because like if you're Montana or like anybody in on that team, like you gotta be like,

[00:36:46] all right, y'all know this is what they did.

[00:36:48] Right.

[00:36:48] They did that purposely.

[00:36:51] You know what I'm saying?

[00:36:51] Yeah.

[00:36:52] At this point, you gotta be shaking your head.

[00:36:54] But I guess at that point, everybody was just done with it.

[00:36:56] They probably didn't figure Madden had legs at that point.

[00:36:59] It was going to be a one hit wonder or whatever, but that ended up, I just thought that was insane.

[00:37:04] Well, that for not only for Joe Montana's team, but think about the consumer.

[00:37:09] Right.

[00:37:09] And we deal with this all the time as people who play video games, you go in, you excited

[00:37:13] to buy a game.

[00:37:14] You bought a game and you're like, bruh, this is not, this ain't what it is.

[00:37:19] And then everybody hit you with the, you should have bought this money.

[00:37:24] Somebody has said that in the episode, they said that the clerks were telling people

[00:37:30] to buy Madden because they knew what the deal was.

[00:37:34] You know what I'm saying?

[00:37:36] Hey, bro, look.

[00:37:37] Oh, you getting this Joe Montana?

[00:37:39] Hey, bro, let me tell you something.

[00:37:40] Say, dog.

[00:37:41] For the same price.

[00:37:42] I think he won this one.

[00:37:44] Yeah.

[00:37:44] Same price.

[00:37:45] You heard about Madden?

[00:37:47] Yeah.

[00:37:48] It's on, it's on, it's on aisle two.

[00:37:51] Yeah.

[00:37:52] That is on aisle two.

[00:37:53] Right.

[00:37:54] Joe Montana got, Joe Montana got 13 plays.

[00:37:57] Madden got 50, bro.

[00:37:59] You can run 50 plays.

[00:38:00] You know what I'm saying?

[00:38:01] It's got a little sketchy though too, because it's like, it's like the, the guy that's going

[00:38:05] to offer, the mechanic's going to offer the picture.

[00:38:07] Hey, just come back here after seven o'clock and everybody, half the price.

[00:38:11] I'm like, wait a minute now.

[00:38:13] You got smart.

[00:38:14] I want to save some money, but I want to make sure that my car is driving.

[00:38:17] It's almost coming out of, it's too good of a deal to pass the ball.

[00:38:20] Too good of a deal.

[00:38:21] Yeah.

[00:38:22] Yeah.

[00:38:22] Cause you know, the people are like, man, I want the Joe Montana game.

[00:38:25] It's Joe Montana.

[00:38:25] That's a big name.

[00:38:26] Right?

[00:38:26] So it's everywhere.

[00:38:27] Like I want the Joe Montana game.

[00:38:29] And then they dad out there ringing his pockets, trying to figure out, okay, I need $15 for

[00:38:33] this game.

[00:38:34] And I don't know.

[00:38:35] It's going to break me.

[00:38:35] I got to work overtime at the foundry, you know what I'm saying?

[00:38:38] To make this happen.

[00:38:39] You know, it's 1990.

[00:38:40] So it was tough.

[00:38:41] But then you get there.

[00:38:42] Yeah.

[00:38:43] And yeah, some youngster at Toys R Us is like, nah, baby.

[00:38:47] Tell you something.

[00:38:48] Your kid going to be happier with this one.

[00:38:51] And imagine Dane being the kid who didn't get mad and you got stuck with Joe Montana.

[00:38:56] Like that's why this is some whole shit.

[00:38:58] No disrespect to them.

[00:38:59] But it's some whole shit.

[00:38:59] Oh man.

[00:39:00] And you know what?

[00:39:01] Growing up poor.

[00:39:02] It's easy to see that because you see the big thing was coming up, you know, that the

[00:39:11] Air Force won.

[00:39:12] Man, you walk by with the knockoff Air Force Ones that don't got the little logo on.

[00:39:17] It's like, now you're getting clowned.

[00:39:20] But this is even worse.

[00:39:22] Now you get clowned.

[00:39:31] Which one?

[00:39:32] They're thinking it's about to be mad.

[00:39:33] And they're like, you need to have to play this, man.

[00:39:39] With this?

[00:39:39] With this?

[00:39:39] With this?

[00:39:40] With this?

[00:39:41] Same thing.

[00:39:42] Feeling a shame and embarrassment.

[00:39:43] You just got to sit there with your head down.

[00:39:46] Everybody's communicators.

[00:39:47] Bootleg.

[00:39:48] Raggedy game.

[00:39:49] So.

[00:39:49] They said Tecmo Ball.

[00:39:50] It had to be some.

[00:39:54] No, it just had to be some, you know, discrepancies about that.

[00:39:59] Like, you go to school after Christmas and everybody has Madden and you ended up with Joe

[00:40:06] Montana football.

[00:40:07] Dog.

[00:40:08] You got Madden at home.

[00:40:10] Dog.

[00:40:12] But like, okay, fast forward to like the year is 2004.

[00:40:16] This stuff was still happening.

[00:40:17] You're like, all right, I'm getting live 0-4.

[00:40:19] And like, ooh, you get live.

[00:40:21] With 2K.

[00:40:22] 2K just came.

[00:40:23] You know what I'm saying?

[00:40:25] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:40:26] You know what I'm saying?

[00:40:27] You're like, you're like live 0-6.

[00:40:29] Got the dunk contest.

[00:40:30] Like, okay, that's cool.

[00:40:32] You know what I'm saying?

[00:40:32] You ain't got, you ain't got the 96 Wolves on there though.

[00:40:35] You know what I'm saying?

[00:40:35] You know, they've been doing this since the dawn of time.

[00:40:38] So it's like, yeah.

[00:40:39] Look, Jordan.

[00:40:40] Jordan's still player 99.

[00:40:42] Yeah, he's like, I got no name.

[00:40:43] You can't even afford Michael Jordan on your system.

[00:40:45] You know what I'm saying?

[00:40:46] So it's tough because you're like, it's competition between the brands.

[00:40:50] But also the consumer is also in competition because you want the best product.

[00:40:54] You don't want to be the person whose game doesn't have all the bells and whistles.

[00:40:58] I'm telling you, there's some kid from 1991 that's watching this right now like, what

[00:41:01] the hell?

[00:41:02] This is how I ended up like this?

[00:41:04] I remember going to school and not telling nobody I had Joe Montana because I was embarrassed

[00:41:08] because I didn't want to say nothing.

[00:41:10] So they come a long way.

[00:41:13] I'm going to ask my older brothers after we record, like, did y'all have Joe Montana football

[00:41:19] too?

[00:41:20] I know he's going to have a story.

[00:41:21] I'm going to talk back later with it.

[00:41:23] Man, dad bought us that man.

[00:41:25] We wanted to match you.

[00:41:27] We saw the commercial and everything.

[00:41:29] Man.

[00:41:29] Man.

[00:41:30] I know he don't have a story, but yeah.

[00:41:33] Yeah.

[00:41:34] It's so real.

[00:41:35] Cause they were thinking they could sell 75,000 copies of this.

[00:41:39] They sold 300,000 out the gate, you know?

[00:41:43] And now all of a sudden electronic arts, AKA EA, which we will know as EA sports, you know, like

[00:41:49] it becomes a household name.

[00:41:51] And then we start getting, you know, kind of like the future of Madden, right?

[00:41:56] The present day.

[00:41:57] And they bring in all of these players.

[00:41:59] And I thought that was so cool that they got all these personalities and players because

[00:42:03] the players are roughly our age, you know, a little bit younger, a little bit older or

[00:42:07] whatever, but they too grew up with Madden.

[00:42:10] So these are people who go on to make football a profession.

[00:42:13] And Deontay, you have to question without Madden, do we have Richard Sherman?

[00:42:17] Do we have Saquon?

[00:42:18] Do we have, you know, Barry Sanders, even who they were interviewing, you know, I think

[00:42:22] Madden is a part of shaping their legacies.

[00:42:24] Like their household names because of Matt.

[00:42:27] Right.

[00:42:28] Right.

[00:42:28] And like, kind of like how we touched upon earlier is just like a lot of these players

[00:42:35] now, first time ever hearing about football is through the game.

[00:42:39] Right.

[00:42:39] And that's where your love for the game, like grows because like put it like this, like

[00:42:48] you can watch the game when it comes on, on a Sunday or if it's college, it's on a Saturday.

[00:42:53] But when you have access to football at any point, if you have the game, you can say I'm

[00:42:58] football.

[00:42:59] I can turn on my game.

[00:43:00] Right.

[00:43:01] And like, it's there.

[00:43:02] And like you being in that close connection with that product every day at your disposal,

[00:43:09] rather than having to wait for it to come on your TV.

[00:43:11] Right.

[00:43:12] That's how it grows.

[00:43:13] And to see like the Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Strahan, even those, what I thought was pretty

[00:43:20] cool in the, in the first episode is you'll see different cuts that I remember seeing when

[00:43:29] I turned on Madden, they had the little section where they have a random player saying EA Sports

[00:43:35] is in the game.

[00:43:35] They used to have that in like, right when you turn on the game before the loading screen

[00:43:39] and like, that is something.

[00:43:42] Yeah.

[00:43:43] From the pro bowl, from different parts of the season.

[00:43:45] Right.

[00:43:45] And so like, I just think like for a lot of these players, like a lot of the goal of a

[00:43:54] lot of the professional players was to be literally be in the game.

[00:43:58] Right.

[00:43:59] Yeah.

[00:43:59] Like, obviously they had other motivating factors of being a professional athlete, take

[00:44:05] care of the family.

[00:44:05] Right.

[00:44:06] Make money.

[00:44:06] Of course, be a household name, but like not too far down the list.

[00:44:11] I want to be on a video game.

[00:44:13] Right.

[00:44:14] And like, how do I get, how do I get to be on a video game?

[00:44:18] You know, obviously you can create yourself like we talked about earlier.

[00:44:21] Right.

[00:44:22] But I learned the game by playing the game, do what I have to do.

[00:44:26] Uh, training wise, uh, you know what I'm saying?

[00:44:29] In high school, college, be the best that I can be.

[00:44:33] Right.

[00:44:34] And then you go on to be a professional and what you in, you literally in the game.

[00:44:38] And so I think for a lot of those players that they spoke about, and I'm sure they're

[00:44:41] going to talk about in future episodes is like literally the sports mantra of it's in

[00:44:47] the game.

[00:44:48] Like that's what they want.

[00:44:49] And like, for those players, like this game itself helped them get there.

[00:44:54] Right.

[00:44:54] It helped them become a professional athlete was by playing this game and having that goal.

[00:45:00] Yeah.

[00:45:00] And Dane, the goal has to be not only to get in the game, but you want your attributes to

[00:45:05] be strong too.

[00:45:06] Like you don't want to get in the game and then you're like a scrub.

[00:45:08] You're trying to get in the game.

[00:45:09] Make sure you're competitive because you grew up, you know, playing the game and picking

[00:45:15] teams because you wanted to pick a good team.

[00:45:16] Like I feel bad for the people who play with the, with the sorry team.

[00:45:19] Can't relate.

[00:45:19] I would always be, I'm picking somebody who's competitive.

[00:45:21] I might not pick the best team, but you know what I'm saying?

[00:45:24] Like if you're going in, if you're picking the Browns every time, like more power to you.

[00:45:27] You know what I'm saying?

[00:45:28] But I remember, yeah.

[00:45:31] I remember watching football and being fans of the players a little bit, but I remember

[00:45:35] playing Madden and becoming fans of the players because you didn't have a connection with them.

[00:45:39] This was your player.

[00:45:40] You know what I'm saying?

[00:45:41] Well, you couldn't tell me nothing about the Rams.

[00:45:44] I'm the Marshall Fox.

[00:45:45] Like, you know what I'm saying?

[00:45:45] You couldn't tell me nothing about them.

[00:45:47] Cause I, and I was like, I don't have no connection to that team, but you play with

[00:45:51] them so much on Madden.

[00:45:52] You could think of like all the big moments, all the players that, you know, like I used to

[00:45:56] do some damage with T.O.

[00:45:57] You know what I'm saying?

[00:45:58] Like it just, all the players that, you know, that you just, you can connect your big wins,

[00:46:02] right?

[00:46:03] Your moments with your homeboys to the player in Madden.

[00:46:06] And then that person, they just doing a job.

[00:46:09] They just out here doing football because it's their career.

[00:46:12] It's what they love.

[00:46:13] Now these players got the same connection to Madden that we had and they're incorporating

[00:46:17] that into, into their playing ability.

[00:46:20] You know, I think somebody was saying they even use Madden to kind of get to know their

[00:46:24] opponents, Zane.

[00:46:25] I thought that was pretty cool.

[00:46:26] Playing a season before you start playing.

[00:46:29] Oh, look, it's innovative.

[00:46:30] Yeah.

[00:46:31] You know, I, I, you have to have really tough skin, not the, not the developers, not the directors,

[00:46:39] not the stunt doubles, the brothers that are in charge of those ratings because they

[00:46:43] get the cost of hemmed up, like, you know, digitally hemmed up.

[00:46:47] And they mentioned like, Hey man, why I got my speed is a 93.

[00:46:50] I just ran a four to eight at the combine.

[00:46:52] It was going on with that.

[00:46:53] Those of us have the toughest skins because they get the most, or I assume they get the

[00:46:58] most blamed when it comes to your star athletes or your, your superstar.

[00:47:02] They're not happy about a, you know, my, my, you know, intermediate route running is

[00:47:07] only a 97 and it should be a 99.

[00:47:11] Like those guys have the tough jobs, but more interesting than not, you know, the beautiful

[00:47:16] thing about this game is just the, the memories that it's created.

[00:47:20] Um, the memories that it's created in the bond of this guy, I'm going to be out of time.

[00:47:25] You're going to remember this.

[00:47:26] I don't know any names, but it's before we went to college.

[00:47:29] I already know what you're talking about.

[00:47:30] I'm in the story.

[00:47:32] Let's go.

[00:47:33] Let's go down.

[00:47:34] We, we, we have a, we have a best friend to this day.

[00:47:37] A good friend of ours.

[00:47:37] We went to high school together.

[00:47:38] He ended up moving away.

[00:47:39] He came back and he, you know, he comes, uh, he comes to visit, uh, in a hometown for,

[00:47:44] you know, for a few days because he come to see his mom, um, before he goes back to school.

[00:47:50] Well, I already have my own Xbox.

[00:47:52] He pulls out his Xbox.

[00:47:53] I'm like, why are you bringing that?

[00:47:54] I asked him, why are you bringing an Xbox?

[00:47:55] And he'll, you'll see.

[00:47:57] And this is months.

[00:47:59] This was in the summer.

[00:48:00] Now, mind you, Madden typically comes out in, I think, August or July at the time.

[00:48:05] This was in maybe June.

[00:48:08] No, this was definitely in May, May or May or June.

[00:48:11] Pulls out this, pulls out an Xbox.

[00:48:13] Okay.

[00:48:13] You'll sit next to mine.

[00:48:14] Then he pulls out this cartridge or this, this case, opens the case.

[00:48:18] And it's the new version of Madden.

[00:48:20] I was like, how the hell you got that?

[00:48:24] It's not even out yet.

[00:48:25] I was like, it's not real.

[00:48:26] You got that new stuff.

[00:48:28] Got the boot, got the boot.

[00:48:29] And it's on a D, it's on a blunt DVD.

[00:48:31] So.

[00:48:31] Oh, he got the bootleg.

[00:48:33] Yeah.

[00:48:33] He had the hookup.

[00:48:34] And I thought the first person I called, I said, hey, Deontay, come through.

[00:48:37] And you know, we live, you know, 15 minutes to party.

[00:48:40] Deontay, come through.

[00:48:41] Let's play this Madden.

[00:48:42] And I'm assuming he's like, oh, we can play Madden.

[00:48:44] I'm like, no, no.

[00:48:45] We got the new Mad.

[00:48:46] It was the one with Mary Fitzgerald and Troy Palamon on the cover.

[00:48:49] And they both like this.

[00:48:50] So we playing.

[00:48:52] And Deontay get there, over the door.

[00:48:53] Like, come on here, bro.

[00:48:54] He's like, and he's just standing there like, man, we just played for hours, bro.

[00:48:59] Played for hours.

[00:49:00] Like, before it even hit the streets.

[00:49:02] Didn't connect to the internet or anything.

[00:49:04] That's so crazy.

[00:49:05] I don't even know if you can just get to the bar.

[00:49:07] For legal reasons, which is why I don't know this, brother.

[00:49:10] Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly.

[00:49:11] Yeah.

[00:49:12] Yeah, allegedly.

[00:49:13] I heard, you know, but.

[00:49:15] Yeah.

[00:49:16] Stuff like that.

[00:49:16] Like, you know, we have our sources for getting, you know, the bootleg Jays, the bootleg movies,

[00:49:23] the bootleg, the knockoff Gucci purse, all that.

[00:49:25] This was a whole different thing that I'd never imagined ever.

[00:49:30] And that sort of thing, it just doesn't.

[00:49:33] I never heard of that happening with video games.

[00:49:35] You could literally just wait for it to come out.

[00:49:37] It was so hot.

[00:49:39] The standard of, I got this new shiny toy.

[00:49:43] Like, that was the biggest one.

[00:49:45] The biggest bootleg.

[00:49:46] And it, you know, played very well.

[00:49:48] It played like normal.

[00:49:49] And it's, yeah.

[00:49:50] It was great.

[00:49:51] That was probably one of my favorite Madden memories right there.

[00:49:54] That's so cool.

[00:49:54] I forgot about that day.

[00:49:56] That was, that was definitely one of the best summers, man.

[00:49:59] We, we were on that thing for days and days at a time.

[00:50:04] Yeah.

[00:50:05] It's, it's very funny because the Madden folks can't be mad at you because they low-key bootleg

[00:50:09] Madden anyway.

[00:50:10] You're like, we just, we got to look, y'all, y'all, uh, they're going to apologize to Sega.

[00:50:14] So we, we learned this from you.

[00:50:15] Okay.

[00:50:15] This is, oh yeah.

[00:50:17] Thanks.

[00:50:17] That's a fact.

[00:50:18] They don't, they don't get to be mad at us.

[00:50:20] Um, another, another cool thing I thought was, uh, in the first episode was when they

[00:50:24] brought in Clint Oldenburg.

[00:50:26] He's like the production director.

[00:50:27] He's like, man, I always wanted to be a football player and I got drafted and I couldn't, I

[00:50:31] couldn't play football no more because I wasn't really that great, but I got, I ended

[00:50:35] up playing for EA.

[00:50:36] I don't think that's gotta be the coolest thing ever.

[00:50:38] Right?

[00:50:38] Like, you know, football, you've been playing football your whole life.

[00:50:41] Skill wise, you could probably be better, but somebody needs you to now put your

[00:50:45] football expertise into your favorite video game or America's, you know, football game.

[00:50:51] And he's now sitting down with software engineers and really talking about like how it feels to

[00:50:57] be a player on that field when this stuff happens and like correcting a lot of the mistakes

[00:51:01] that engineers would know exist.

[00:51:03] And, you know, we're talking about football.

[00:51:05] Right?

[00:51:05] So he's able to be like, nah, when you get hit like that, you really don't move like

[00:51:08] that.

[00:51:08] You move like this.

[00:51:09] And these are things that I never even conceptualized in my mind.

[00:51:12] Right?

[00:51:12] When they're making a game, I just think like, I don't, I don't ever think of the

[00:51:15] about it on that granular level.

[00:51:17] Right?

[00:51:17] Right?

[00:51:17] Like, how do you get, like, how do you know which way the player's shoulder is going to

[00:51:20] move or, you know, this, that other.

[00:51:22] And that's when we see, nah, they are here introducing physics based gameplay for Madden

[00:51:28] 25.

[00:51:29] Now, Deontay, I know this probably interested you.

[00:51:31] I know you be on the cutting edge of all the video games still.

[00:51:33] I'll be seeing you on Twitter.

[00:51:35] Like, oh, when the, when the, when the, when the trailer drops, you be like, give me a

[00:51:38] commentary and stuff like that.

[00:51:40] So, yeah.

[00:51:41] Were you familiar with the physics based gameplay and what we saw with all the stuff that they

[00:51:45] were doing on the field?

[00:51:46] You know, just within the production?

[00:51:50] I know.

[00:51:51] Yeah.

[00:51:52] For this year's game, they call it, I don't know if they mentioned it in the first episode,

[00:51:56] but it's called Boom Tech.

[00:51:58] Um, and I was, I just wasn't, I guess, familiar with the, I guess science is the best word,

[00:52:05] but just how they're putting it graphically through the computer.

[00:52:08] Um, I think they're always trying to innovate and try to figure out ways to make it as realistic

[00:52:13] as possible.

[00:52:15] Um, and with Clint on staff and he's been there for, I think more than a decade, he's been

[00:52:21] there for a while.

[00:52:22] Um, I think it's important for the Madden team to have someone that's been on the field.

[00:52:28] Um, kind of like how John was a part of the game itself, like to always have somebody on

[00:52:34] staff to kind of lend.

[00:52:37] I mean, he's much more than lending advice.

[00:52:39] He's actually a part of the development team, but you know, to have that voice to kind of

[00:52:43] say, Hey, he's not moving right here.

[00:52:45] Uh, he, you know, that doesn't look realistic.

[00:52:48] You know, he should be going near his head should be on this side of the guy on the tackle

[00:52:53] or something like that.

[00:52:53] It's very important to kind of, um, keep that going, obviously to make the game and continue

[00:52:59] to have it as realistic as possible.

[00:53:02] Um, I think a tough Avenue for them and like, because for, for them and like being on top for

[00:53:12] so long, I think it's always going to be like somebody trying to knock down a peg and like

[00:53:19] kind of trying to knock off the champ or like the critic, the critique, should I say in criticism

[00:53:26] and things of that nature kind of channel that out.

[00:53:28] But like, I think for, for this Madden team so far, like, I feel like the game itself has

[00:53:35] come a long way and like, there's always going to be gripes with it and things like that.

[00:53:39] Like when he, when he pulled up on the computer, it had like 480 something bug.

[00:53:43] I was like, dang, like realizing like, cause Dan and I, we've kind of critiqued the game

[00:53:49] over the years, but kind of like stepping back and watching the episode and realizing I'm

[00:53:54] being light here.

[00:53:55] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:53:55] I'm being light, but like kind of stepping back and realizing like what goes into it.

[00:54:00] I kind of understand, you know what I'm saying?

[00:54:02] Like the other side of it, like we got to deal with this.

[00:54:05] We got to deal with that and like having to do it on a yearly basis when you got such

[00:54:13] and such staff here and such staff here, it's, it's, it's a difficult job.

[00:54:18] But overall, I think like, like we had mentioned Madden continues to kind of innovate and find

[00:54:26] out creative ways.

[00:54:27] Like next year will probably be something, I don't know, speed related, like separation

[00:54:32] of speed.

[00:54:33] I don't know, but I enjoy the, like, I do enjoy the, like the creativity and them trying

[00:54:38] to try different things, even if they don't work.

[00:54:40] But overall, I think it's a good, good, decent product.

[00:54:44] Yeah.

[00:54:45] I mean, we've been doing so much development for this one video game for over 20 years at

[00:54:50] this point.

[00:54:50] And we've seen that it has become something so robust, something that these people did

[00:54:54] not even imagine was possible.

[00:54:56] And so it's like, yeah, we complain about it, but that's because we want it to be good all

[00:54:59] the time.

[00:54:59] Right.

[00:55:00] And so I think if you complain, people hear the complaints and then they want to make adjustments

[00:55:04] based on the complaints.

[00:55:05] And it's not just like fans having complaints, right?

[00:55:07] These are the players have the complaints and they're the ones who these games are emulating.

[00:55:11] So, um, I think it makes sense.

[00:55:13] I think it makes sense to go in and be critical of stuff like this, but also to respect the

[00:55:17] craft, you know, uh, this didn't happen overnight.

[00:55:19] It feels like you just turned on your game and you have a game in front of you, but the

[00:55:23] amount of hours and programming and stuff that goes into making this happen, even just the

[00:55:27] physicality of it.

[00:55:28] Now that I see that, you know, creating Madden as a contact sport, it just completely blew

[00:55:32] my mind.

[00:55:33] Um, but I have a question.

[00:55:35] And before we wrap up the name of this episode, episode number one, dang, the episode was called

[00:55:42] can a computer make you cry?

[00:55:44] I have to know.

[00:55:46] Has the computer ever made you cry?

[00:55:48] Yeah.

[00:55:49] Yeah.

[00:55:50] Yeah.

[00:55:51] Yeah.

[00:55:52] So fortunately we have, I have a different experience of upbringing than Deontay.

[00:55:57] I didn't have any older brothers.

[00:55:59] I had older sister, um, that she wasn't into video games.

[00:56:02] Right.

[00:56:03] But, um, I had, you know, uncles and a stepdad, obviously.

[00:56:12] And man, I ended my, in my grandma's garage.

[00:56:16] It was cold.

[00:56:16] It was really cold.

[00:56:18] I had a bigger TV and it wasn't anything special about my, my grandma's house outside

[00:56:24] of it being a central location for everybody in, in, uh, I was about to say neighborhood.

[00:56:31] And it was a central meeting place for our, our community.

[00:56:34] Um, that was the purpose that it served.

[00:56:37] So again, I moved my big old TV into the garage that it set up, had the heater in there in the

[00:56:41] garage and, you know, snacks and all this stuff playing Madden.

[00:56:45] And this was when, um, this is when they definitely had to fight for the fumble.

[00:56:49] We had a little Madden tournament and I just knew I was, I just knew I was, I just

[00:56:54] knew I was shit and ended up losing.

[00:56:58] Um, and I just, it is one thing when you lose, but it's another thing when you lose on

[00:57:02] some bull, like bull, that's fight for the fumble crap.

[00:57:06] And you gotta be real quick on about what buttons you push because if you push the wrong

[00:57:09] button, the other person will win and cry when they were there, when they left, just

[00:57:16] because I was just, it was just, I was angry to brag about them.

[00:57:19] You, you make a silly mistake.

[00:57:20] You don't see a receiver that's wide open.

[00:57:22] You get clowned about that.

[00:57:23] Oh yeah.

[00:57:24] Yeah.

[00:57:25] Yeah.

[00:57:26] Them, um, sports ears are different than everything else.

[00:57:30] But when you add sports video game tears, that just creates a whole nother land.

[00:57:35] And then don't let a relative or a family member see you cry and say, no, you ain't

[00:57:38] crying over that damn game.

[00:57:39] I was like, yes, it ain't just a game.

[00:57:41] Yeah.

[00:57:42] It ain't, it ain't, it really ain't.

[00:57:45] I ain't crying.

[00:57:46] It's more than a game.

[00:57:48] You know, it's more than a game.

[00:57:50] I grew up, uh, my family is from Waco, but I grew up in Houston.

[00:57:53] And so I was always in Houston, but I knew that when I had to go back for the holidays,

[00:57:59] we was going to get on the game.

[00:58:00] So Houston was training camp.

[00:58:02] I was in Houston.

[00:58:03] I didn't have the game.

[00:58:04] I had to go rent the game sometime.

[00:58:05] Like, Hey, what game you got?

[00:58:07] Oh, you got the new such and such.

[00:58:08] You got the new bag.

[00:58:09] Okay.

[00:58:09] Bet.

[00:58:10] Cause I can't show up like no scrub.

[00:58:11] Cause they spend every day with this game.

[00:58:13] Oh, you ain't going to buy me the game?

[00:58:14] Bet.

[00:58:15] I kind of figured out a way.

[00:58:16] I got a homeboy playing game.

[00:58:17] I'm going to go grind.

[00:58:18] You know, we've been to go play and I'm going to, I'm going to train up.

[00:58:21] So when I come to the city, y'all know it's real.

[00:58:24] So the computer has made me cry tons of times.

[00:58:27] Okay.

[00:58:27] Cause I was out there.

[00:58:28] Like I said, this was training camp.

[00:58:29] It's like, if you can't, if you can't beat the computer, I'm talking about you have to

[00:58:32] up it all mad.

[00:58:33] You can't, you just can't be playing a rookie.

[00:58:35] You got to come in and just train yourself because everybody else, the streets is ready.

[00:58:39] They ready for you to pull up and they ready to embarrass you on their own game.

[00:58:42] And nothing's worse than getting embarrassed on your own system.

[00:58:45] Are you crazy?

[00:58:46] Somebody came to your house and took the first controller.

[00:58:49] Deontay.

[00:58:49] Tell me, you got siblings.

[00:58:52] The computer ever make you cry?

[00:58:57] The computer itself.

[00:58:59] No, the system.

[00:59:01] The system.

[00:59:02] Yeah.

[00:59:03] The system.

[00:59:03] Just the system.

[00:59:04] The game.

[00:59:05] Yeah.

[00:59:05] Just the game make you cry, Deontay.

[00:59:09] Honestly, I don't remember a cry moment for me, but I just remember when I used to lose

[00:59:18] to my brothers, it was just like a flick of like, all right, I'm little at this point, but

[00:59:29] I was like, I know when I learned this game, you know what I'm saying?

[00:59:32] It's going to be on.

[00:59:33] And then now they'll tell you, right.

[00:59:35] Now they'll tell you like all the times, like as I've grown up, obviously I've beaten them

[00:59:40] more because I've like dedicated, like Dana will tell you like when I play my brotherly

[00:59:44] game, super competitive.

[00:59:46] Oh yeah.

[00:59:47] I will tell y'all this.

[00:59:49] I will tell y'all this story.

[00:59:51] It was like around the time when I was still like maybe five or six.

[00:59:54] And then the house, the house that I grew up in, grew up in my oldest brother lives in

[00:59:59] there now.

[01:00:00] But there was a time where my middle oldest brother got so upset at the game that he

[01:00:06] punched his bedroom.

[01:00:08] We had those, we had wooden doors.

[01:00:10] He punched the wooden bedroom door and it left like this indention in there.

[01:00:16] This was back in 96 and they never fixed it.

[01:00:22] So it's the indention of it is still in there in 20, in 2024.

[01:00:27] Yeah.

[01:00:28] But that's just how mad it is, right?

[01:00:30] Like it'll get you to a point that you don't even recognize yourself.

[01:00:35] And Karina will tell you she's in the other room, but she'll hear me because I still play

[01:00:41] the game, obviously.

[01:00:42] And she'll hear me yelling while she, you know, is up in her work meeting and she hates

[01:00:47] it.

[01:00:47] I apologize to her all the time, but it's just like, I'll catch myself screaming like,

[01:00:52] ah, like, you know what I'm saying?

[01:00:54] It gets, it brings out the emotion in you.

[01:00:57] Yeah.

[01:00:57] Times infinity.

[01:00:59] And so, yeah, man, it's, it's, it's always been like that, but I think it's more so just

[01:01:04] the fact that like, it's been such a part of our lives.

[01:01:07] Like we have been talking about throughout this episode.

[01:01:10] It means it's more, people, people will probably shake their head listening to this, but it's

[01:01:15] more than a game, man.

[01:01:16] It's more than a game.

[01:01:18] It's not a game.

[01:01:19] It's not a game.

[01:01:22] It's not a game.

[01:01:23] It is a game.

[01:01:23] It is a game.

[01:01:24] And the players even talk about it in this episode, that this is something that we grew

[01:01:29] up with that was building families and friendship with other people.

[01:01:33] It's like, you got people who like video games versus people who like football.

[01:01:36] You got athletes who want to play a game.

[01:01:38] They normally not a game person.

[01:01:39] I like to be outside, but I don't play this game because it's an outside game, you know?

[01:01:43] And so it's, it's making people like, it's almost like reaching across the aisle to

[01:01:47] different communities.

[01:01:47] It was doing way more than just you at home playing a video game and eating junk food.

[01:01:53] You know, it was more than that.

[01:01:54] And so Madden goes on to be something that we obviously had a great time talking about

[01:01:58] today, but something that we are going to stop talking about anytime soon.

[01:02:01] You know, when the next Madden comes out, I expect to see Deontay and Dane tweeting about

[01:02:05] it.

[01:02:05] You know what I'm talking about?

[01:02:06] Like, oh, no, I see the preview, bro.

[01:02:07] It's looking like they're working on XYZ.

[01:02:09] I'm not going to get the first version when they drop it because they're going to have to

[01:02:11] work the bugs out.

[01:02:12] I'm going to have to get the second version.

[01:02:13] You know, I'm going to see all those conversations and more because-

[01:02:16] That's usually what Dane says.

[01:02:18] Oh, I'm going to get it on, I'm going to get it on Black Friday.

[01:02:20] Exactly.

[01:02:21] Ask me, ask me, do I have to look, not going, I ain't going to do too much on it, but ask

[01:02:25] me if I have the current year's version right now.

[01:02:26] Ask me.

[01:02:27] Yeah.

[01:02:27] Do you?

[01:02:28] I do not, not yet.

[01:02:29] Were you in two days?

[01:02:32] When I see that price drop a little bit and I can rationalize myself, all right, I

[01:02:35] know you said you wasn't going, you wasn't going, you know, yeah, I got going that narcotic,

[01:02:40] but it's the price dropped $27.

[01:02:45] Just a little bump.

[01:02:46] Y'all need to go full blow.

[01:02:47] Just a little bump.

[01:02:48] I think it is.

[01:02:50] I think it is important to add, like Madden was in a tough spot this year because we got

[01:02:55] the new college football game back this year that had made out for 11 years.

[01:03:00] Like, you know, the game had stopped making the game for 11 years.

[01:03:03] And so when that came back this season, I think a lot of the focus shift to that as opposed

[01:03:11] to Madden and some people have them both, but I think having that nostalgia kind of tapping

[01:03:16] into that kind of, you know, with the college football game kind of put Madden on the, I

[01:03:23] guess, back burner, you could say, but there are still people that enjoy it to the fullest.

[01:03:28] Um, like it's still like one of the obviously bestselling games, uh, sports games, but I

[01:03:35] think, um, just having that sense of community, like I have it.

[01:03:39] It's friends of mine that play it.

[01:03:41] Like I think more so just video games in general.

[01:03:45] I keep coming back to it.

[01:03:46] We keep coming back to it.

[01:03:47] It's just a sense of community and connecting with people.

[01:03:50] Yeah.

[01:03:51] Yeah.

[01:03:51] And even, even talking about it with y'all has been so much fun as well.

[01:03:55] You know what I'm saying?

[01:03:55] Like y'all, y'all already my brothers, but this is something that we, we get the bottom

[01:03:59] of, right.

[01:04:00] It's talking about some of the things that kind of made us who we are today.

[01:04:03] And so, uh, thank y'all so much for joining me to talk about episode one of it's in the

[01:04:08] game Madden NFL on prime.

[01:04:11] Check it out.

[01:04:11] If you haven't already checked it out, um, make sure you watch all of it.

[01:04:14] We only talked about episode one, but, uh, I'm, I'm about to sit down and watch all

[01:04:17] of it for sure.

[01:04:18] Um, because, uh, I want to know everything, right.

[01:04:21] I want to know everything now.

[01:04:23] And so, uh, it is on prime.

[01:04:25] Yeah.

[01:04:25] I believe they released all of it.

[01:04:27] If not, it's probably releasing weekly, whatever, check it out.

[01:04:29] And then, uh, make sure you let us know what you think about it in the comments, hit that

[01:04:33] like button, hit subscribe.

[01:04:34] And right here in the comments on our YouTube page, youtube.com slash at recap, kick back.

[01:04:37] Let us know what's your Madden story.

[01:04:39] Did the computer make you cry?

[01:04:41] Um, and if, if maybe not Madden, right, make what is the video game that did make you cry?

[01:04:45] Cause I got a list of games that I was, they was on my ass, but I was on their ass too.

[01:04:49] You know what I'm saying?

[01:04:50] So, uh, thank y'all for listening.

[01:04:52] And I got to ask Dane, what you been up to?

[01:04:55] Where can the people follow you?

[01:04:57] Where can they find you?

[01:04:58] What you got going on in your world?

[01:04:59] Yeah, man.

[01:05:00] Uh, you can find me on the, you can find me on Twitter.

[01:05:03] That's what it's called.

[01:05:04] Okay.

[01:05:04] Well, at least when I joined back in my day, that's what it's called.

[01:05:06] You can find me at Twitter at DaneBTX.

[01:05:09] I'm also on IG, DaneBTX.

[01:05:11] And you can find me in them skies.

[01:05:13] In the skies.

[01:05:14] Shout out to all the skeeters out there.

[01:05:16] We out there too.

[01:05:18] DaneBTX.

[01:05:18] So, um, you know, I'm, I'm enjoying it and life is great.

[01:05:22] Life is great.

[01:05:23] Thankful to be here.

[01:05:24] So appreciate you again for having, uh, you know, having us up on here chatting about

[01:05:27] this beautiful thing we call Madden.

[01:05:30] Alrighty.

[01:05:31] And, uh, D.D., where can the people follow you?

[01:05:33] I know you're on the skies.

[01:05:35] I see you in them skies.

[01:05:36] You on the skyline.

[01:05:36] I'm, I'm, I'm on the skies.

[01:05:39] D.S.

[01:05:39] Right steps.

[01:05:41] Um, and I'm not, I have a Twitter, but I don't tweet.

[01:05:45] I, I, my last tweet is telling people to go follow me on blue sky.

[01:05:49] So I have my, uh, I'm posting, you know, skeeting about sports and Marvel and posting content

[01:05:59] from, from the job that I have at ESPN, which I enjoy.

[01:06:03] Um, I'm on threads, just posting content there as well.

[01:06:07] Instagram, my DFS right steps.

[01:06:09] Um, and you know, just living the East coast life up here with, with my wife, Karina.

[01:06:15] Uh, and we're loving it.

[01:06:17] Just trying to stay warm.

[01:06:18] Thankfully we have not encountered snow.

[01:06:21] Um, but as you can see by my sweater here, it's, it's kind of cold, uh, up here, but we're

[01:06:26] just trying to stay as warm as we can.

[01:06:28] Um, but you know, we're loving it here.

[01:06:31] Still thankful.

[01:06:31] All those good things, bro.

[01:06:33] Appreciate you for having us on for sure.

[01:06:35] It's no problem at all.

[01:06:37] And of course you can catch me on recap, at recap, kickback at all social media platforms,

[01:06:41] including new skies.

[01:06:43] Uh, check me out.

[01:06:44] I'll be tweeting out all the content that I'm making right now.

[01:06:47] Uh, Mari and I just talked about, uh, cross on prime as well.

[01:06:51] We talked about, yeah, we talked about episode one, but probably going to do a series overview

[01:06:55] as well.

[01:06:56] Cause people really enjoyed.

[01:06:57] I'm one episode away from finishing it.

[01:07:00] Oh yeah.

[01:07:00] We won't, we won't spoil it for you, but it's, it's a ride.

[01:07:03] Okay.

[01:07:04] So, uh, make sure you check that out for sure.

[01:07:06] So that you can be in the conversation and see what we got going on over on recap kickback.

[01:07:10] Um, also when Abbott elementary comes back, G and I will continue to cover this most recent

[01:07:15] season of Abbott.

[01:07:16] Uh, and this week Mari and I were joined by, uh, eight ball bangers himself, Isaiah to talk

[01:07:21] about rhythm and flow.

[01:07:22] We also got into some of the, uh, rap beef that's going on.

[01:07:25] Um, why did Drake decide to press charges?

[01:07:27] What is going on?

[01:07:28] That man's not like us.

[01:07:30] Let's check that out and more to, uh, to find out what we're talking about here on recap

[01:07:34] kickback.

[01:07:34] But until next time for Deontay, for Dane and for myself, you ain't got to go home, but

[01:07:39] you definitely got to come back later.

[01:07:40] We'll catch y'all next time.

[01:07:41] Peace.

[01:07:44] Peace.

[01:07:45] Peace.

[01:07:46] Peace.