NFL Retirees Say EA, NFLPA Cheated Them on "Madden" Games

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 30, 2008 - 11:02am.

Los Angeles - A number of retired NFL players have filed a lawsuit claiming that the NFL Players, Inc. and game publisher Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) conspired to deprive them of fees from the use of their likenesses in the wildly popular "Madden NFL" game franchise, GamePolitics reported.

One of the retired players, former Buffalo Bills safety Jeff Nixon (1979-84), penned an open letter to fellow Hall of Fame member and the game's spokesman, John Madden, asking if he is going to "sit back and let the NFLPA and EA Sports continue to take advantage of our Hall of Fame players?"

The lawsuit alleges that EA "scrambled" the images of more than 600 retired players in Madden NFL 2007 so they wouldn't have to be paid.

It cites internal emails, like one from Players Inc. vice president of multimedia LaShun Lawson to Madden NFL producer Jeremy Strauser: "For all retired players that are not listed... their identity must be altered so that it cannot be recognized."

The NFLPA and Players Inc. are also alleged to have arranged below-market rates for the payments retirees did receive, and to have staved off competition in the form of a rival NFL football game from publisher Take-Two Interactive (NASD: TTWO).

"I was able to forge this deal with the HOF that provides them with 400K per year (which is significantly below market rate) in exchange for the HOF player rights. EA owes me a huge favor because of that threat was enough to persuade Take Two to back off its plans, leaving EA as the only professional football videogame manufacturer out there," reads another email from NFLPA executive Clay Walker.

"The per player price for most of these guys was tens of thousands of dollars less than what they were guaranteed by Take Two Interactive so it's a real coup that we were able to pull this off so cheaply," reads another email from Walker.

"You have to remember that EA's total cost is only $200,000 per year. We know that Take Two offered six figure deals to several former NFL players so the total cost is millions below market prices..."