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There’s a ton of hype surrounding the upcoming release of College Football 25, which threatens to temporarily derail the lives of people who’ve been waiting for more than a decade for the series to return.
It’s safe to assume many of the players who’ve opted into the game are also eagerly anticipating the day it drops, and Texas A&M coach Mike Elko is aware of the impact it could have on his team thanks to what he was forced to do when a Call of Duty game came out a couple of years ago.
Student-athletes obviously have a lot on their plate when you consider they have to balance their academic workload with the training sessions, practices, and games that take up a ton of their schedule, but at the end of the day, they’re still college kids who harness the free time they have to pursue various hobbies that are popular with people of that particular age.
It should come as no surprise that plenty of those players spend a fair amount of time playing video games in their dorm room, which would apparently include some members of the Texas A&M football team based on what current head coach Mike Elko had to say about the intervention that needed to be held thanks to a recent installment in the Call of Duty franchise.
On Tuesday, Travis Brown of The Bryan-College Station Eagle asked Elko if there was any palpable excitement as Texas A&M players gear up for the release of College Football 25 when it drops on July 19th.
He used the question as an excuse to discuss the situation he had to deal with when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II consumed the lives of some of them when he was still working as an offensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher in 2022, saying he had to hold a meeting to remind them it was a bad idea to stay up until 4 A.M. playing it when they have to show up to practice three hours later.
Head coach Mike Elko asked if he or his players are excited about playing the new College Football video game:
"In full disclosure, because I've been a part of this before, you can't imagine how much the release of a hot new video game can impact your football team. I remember…
— 𝕋𝕣𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕤 𝕃. 𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕨𝕟 (@Travis_L_Brown) May 24, 2024
In 2018, we were treated to a similar story after NHL reporter Jeff Marek said a first-round draft pick was dealing with a video game addiction that was putting his career in jeopardy (it’s believed he was referring to former Bruins prospect Jakub Zbořil, although he downplayed the issue when asked about it in an interview).