EA Sports attempted to put its distinctive touch on an NFL broadcast again this year with the "Maddencast," a special program featuring bells and whistles from the popular football sim. But for the second consecutive year, it served as little more than a three-hour advertisement for the video game.
The competition is stiff
There have already been some incredible alternate broadcasts. The Simpsons teleported the NFL game to Springfield and actually came up with an in universe narrative for everything happening. Within minutes, my socials were full of memes lamenting Moe Syslak blowing up parlays with his spin moves.
On one of Nickelodeon's alt broadcasts, we got Dora the Explorer roasting the San Francisco 49ers offense.
These were great moments that actually added something memorable to the football games they were covering. Without these, you're just doing another game broadcast
What worked in the Maddencast
The Hi-Sky camera view puts things behind the quarterback, giving folks at home the same view you get when playing a game of Madden. 99 percent of the positive comments I saw about the broadcast were talking about this camera angle. If EA and Peacock are only going to do this once a year, I'll be surprised if Amazon or some other competitor doesn't make it part of their package.
The receiver icons were an excellent touch, and does blend actual football with the Madden experience. Hearing Kurt Benkert say "The B receiver was open" is the most video game football thing imaginable.
What didn't work in the Maddencast (A much longer list, sadly)
Once the fancy graphics have had their few minutes of impact, all we've been left with is a regular sports broadcast, only worse. YouTuber Kurt Benkert and NFL legend Tyrann Mathieu had zero chemistry in the booth, and you couldn't realistically expect them to. Tom Brady is one of the greatest football players who ever lived, and even he is struggling to adjust to the broadcast booth. He at least gets an opportunity to go every week and work with the same partner.
Benkert and Mathieu could probably only practice their routine in simulations, and there's no substitute for calling a live broadcast. They also had the unfortunate luck of working the only Thanksgiving game that was largely unwatchable. But I can't review what the Maddencast might be, only what it has been so far. If I didn't have to write about this for App Trigger, I'd have turned it off at the half.
The most energy in the entire show was during the too brief segments in which they cut to Chad Ochocinco as a "live ratings adjuster." That makes sense, he was always one of the most charismatic players and hosts a regular sports talk show with Shannon Sharpe.
The live ratings adjustments are basically pointless. Player abilities and X-Factors have become far more important than a player's overall rating in the game. EA doesn't promote this fact, as it enjoys making a huge deal out of who gets a 99 rating. The players are proud of their ratings too, I get it.
What I'd change for next year
As I mentioned, the live ratings updates are pointless. A defensive lineman getting his rating pushed from a 66 to a 68 affects absolutely nothing in-game, and any longtime Madden player knows as much.
I like the way MLB The Show handles players who had great performances. If somebody bashes three homers, throws a one-hitter or something similar, their Diamond Dynasty card will get a huge ratings boost for several days. This is a much better way to reward somebody for a big game in the spotlight than a two-point ratings boost that does nothing to make them more impactful.
Then, we can get Chad Ochocinco into the booth and off the sideline. One of the major problems that the Benkert-Mathieu duo had was that both men were functioning as play-by-play, and there was no color commentator to speak of.
There is probably a good alt broadcast somewhere in this mix, and since this thing's primary function is advertisement for Madden I suspect EA and Peacock will keep trying until they figure it out.