NFL Blitz, Closer to Real Life Than We Ever Could Have Imagined

Way back in 1997, a game by the name of "NFL Blitz" made its debut, and uberviolent football fans everywhere rejoiced. This was not John Madden's type of football. No sir, this game encouraged late hits, excessive celebrations and general carnage. They even marginalized the kicking game by making punts and extra points automatic, though that might be an improvement if you're say, Bill Parcells.

The game continued to be produced in yearly installments until '04(because Blitz Pro failed miserably in '03), and then in '05 the greedy EA execs bought every single piece of NFL licensing(ensuring Madden mediocrity for years to come...yeah!)

Midway however, refused to be deterred by the NFL buyout and released "NLF Blitz: The League" in 2005. Obviously, the team and player names were fake, but we all knew who "Mike Mexico" was supposed to be. They even collaborated with one of the writers from ESPN's NFL drama "Playmakers", and we all know how much the NFL loved that show(Ironically, Willie Anderson, a Cincinnati Bengal, had this to say about that show, "I'm glad they canceled it. It's one of those false interpretations people get about the NFL and the players. If the NFL's serious about our image and the image that we portray, canceling it is a good thing." Haha, false interpretations? Riiight.)

Anyway, Midway released "Blitz: The League" in '05 and used Lawrence Taylor for the cover and a character voice. That should give you an idea of what the producers were aiming for. With the popularity of the PSP and XBox 360 they've re-released the game with the addition of Bill Romanowski(yes, the original Romo) and just in time for Christmas.

So now, for '06 we've got a football game with two of the NFL's more questionable characters on the cover. One that encourages crazy celebrations, and violent tackles. With the way this NFL season has gone though, it's probably closer to real life than Madden could ever hope to be.