YouTube/EA Sports
Madden 19 is set to be released on August 10 but a number of people have already gotten their hands on a copy. Unfortunately for EA Sports, the game has already received a fair amount of criticism— only it has nothing to do with the gameplay whatsoever.
On Thursday, someone with early access posted a clip on Twitter after noticing a Big Sean verse featured on the game’s soundtrack had been suspiciously edited to remove a reference to Colin Kaepernick from the lyrics.
bad enough @Kaepernick7 still not signed, but now they even edit his name out in this year’s @EAMaddenNFL during @BigSean verse, smh pic.twitter.com/3nvkB26z5r
— Mr. Changing Lives (@jeanclervil) August 2, 2018
If you’ve been paying attention to the social zeitgeist, then you already know the omission riled up plenty of people online— including Big Sean himself, who immediately put the gaming company on blast for what many perceived as conscious censorship.
Kaepernick’s lawyers playing Madden and listening for deleted Colin Kaepernick references for their collusion lawsuit pic.twitter.com/6TK83i0Xu2
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) August 3, 2018
Look what happened when we tried to play with Kaepernick in an old version of Madden pic.twitter.com/M1w2P7p1RZ
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 3, 2018
"We need the new Madden to have all the hottest hip hop tracks."
"But boss, it looks like almost every rap single since 2016 shouts out Kaepernick."
"Bleep it out."
"But won't that be a metaphor for our political incomp…"
"I said bleep it out." https://t.co/MBun9IddRw
— Jake M. Grumbach (@JakeMGrumbach) August 2, 2018
Kaepernick also responded to the news himself and thanked the Chicago rapper for calling out the makers of the game.
Much love brother! Thank you for having my back!✊🏾 https://t.co/yKz3nBMiPb
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) August 2, 2018
However. if you already visited the torch and pitchfork store, you might want to dig up your receipt. Shortly after the omission came to light, EA Sports issued an apology and explained why Kaepernick’s name was accidentally removed:
“We made an unfortunate mistake with our Madden NFL soundtrack. Members of our team misunderstood the fact that while we don’t have rights to include Colin Kaepernick in the game, this doesn’t affect soundtracks. We messed up, and the edit should never have happened. We will make it right, with an update to Madden NFL 19 on August 6 that will include the reference again. We meant no disrespect, and we apologize to Colin, to YG and Big Sean, to the NFL, to all of their fans and our players for this mistake.”
While I personally believe their explanation, this incident is definitely not a great look when you consider Pro Football Talk revealed the company also edited Kaepernick’s name out of a song on the Madden 18 soundtrack last year. Awkward.
With that said, I guess you have to give some props to them for finally putting some respect on the name.