I wrote the following article in 2017, just after season 31 if I recall. Only 12 people, including me, are still in the league. Enjoy the road down memory lane or just seeing a 7 year-old impression of some the guys still here.
While I always try to play in a way that makes it fun for both sides, I never thought I would be awarded Most Fun to Play. I would make another video, but that would just be me sobbing for two minutes.
To celebrate winning the most prestigious award in RedZone annals (not anal Weed) I wanted to flip it around and talk about what makes all of you so fun to play for me. Some of these are specific games, plays, or strategies, while others may be personality, interactions, or miscellaneous memories.
We played when I was destroying the league with RaShawn McCown and Watkins. In that game, Cave played dime coverage the entire game regardless of my formation, daring me to run. He doubled McCown and Sammy on every play. The Niners won easily and it was one of the best gameplans anyone has ever employed against me.
I would rather be losing to VB, because as soon as he’s down in the 4th quarter, VB gets crazy aggressive and plays way better. Most people throw picks and make stupid mistakes when they are desperate, but VB is the opposite.
We tied in the first season of this cycle after BP iced my kicker. It was the first time I had ever kicked under the iced conditions and totally panicked. Well played sir.
Just the way Metal plays. He refuses to give up big plays on defense. Plays methodically on offense and rarely makes mistakes. He uses touch passing better than anyone I have played, going back to Madden 16. By the way, Metalskull has been playing this exact style since last cycle. So glad to see him finally getting recognition for his play.
I wasn’t playing in this game, but beating L2D in the super bowl last cycle was awesome. Everyone in the league was pulling for him and he came through.
The way the league rallied around baby Elise’s passing was the best moment in RedZone history. It was such a tragedy for Eikim and everyone in the league shared in his pain. I am proud to be in a league with 31 other guys that helped to lift him during what I can only assume was the worst moment of his life.
Getting a S2L against me last cycle because Sin didn’t want to leave the strip club. As I recall, there was potential for a 3-way with Sin, his lady, and a stripper. The worst part is that it never came to fruition (that we heard about).
The number of close games we’ve played over the years. Let’s be honest, Turtles record has been awful. But based on our games, you would never know it. Back in the Baltimore/Bills days, I faced off against the Jets regularly and we rarely had a game that didn’t come down to the last score. Turtles even won a handful of those games.
The time he kicked it off and the ball went 20 yards BACKWARDS. Yes, the ball ended up behind where he kicked it off from. Mans pretending to be bad at kicking so no one would suspect his dual roles is the best.
Gaining an NFL record 361 yards from scrimmage and scoring 5 TD’s with Bronson Wagner will be one of the greatest games of my RedZone career. Thanks for playing terrible defense and refusing to give up Nick. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ3sTkjM95w
Simultaneously having extreme optimism while also having no faith in himself or his team. Every season he believes he has a chance at the playoffs (which he should) but also expresses how bad he is at various parts of the game. It kills me. Never change Corn.
Oh Grandpa Rod. I am convinced that you argue in GroupMe just to get a rise out of people. I’ve heard you on Podcasts and game broadcasts and you are a coherent, well-functioning, intelligent man. But get you behind a keyboard, and good gravy the nonsense starts flying. None the less, I have always enjoyed playing Silk. It wasn’t much fun back when he had the Jags at the end of Madden 15 because of confidence hell. But our Madden 16 and Madden 17 games have both been fun me. In fact, I’m pretty sure Silk has beaten me in all but one game (just last season).
We have never played, but I’m glad you changed Eric Nobles name back. Hopefully that misunderstanding showed you just how much we care about his league. We’re glad to have you and hope you have as much fun here as we do.
Outside of starting beaf with the best man from my wedding, we’ve had two really fun games. Black Magic improved a ton from our first game to the second. Making the playoffs in his first season is an impressive accomplishment. It took me 10 Madden season across two cycles to make my first playoff game. I think he is going to be a solid user for RedZone for cycles to come.
My favorite moment with Chris is when he orchestrated the team trade that landed me the Rams. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I didn’t have to play with the Saints this cycle. We had a great playoff game last season too. I got bailed out a few different times that game.
Back in Madden 15 when Moji would play cover 0, 90% of the game with 83 speed Tramon Williams at corner… and still beat me. Every time we played I looked at it as a win on the schedule because I knew exactly how he was going to play on defense. Yet, he still got the better of me most of the time.
In Madden 2006, I drafted Adrian Peterson in our 4th season (imported draft classes from NCAA, he was a freshman at that point IRL). In the first game of the season I broke the NFL rushing record. With a few minutes left in the game I had to leave for work (Little Caesaers) so I asked Cory to run out the clock for me. While running out the clock, Adrian Peterson tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season.
Of everyone in the league, Jake views RedZone the closest to the way I see it. We haven’t played a bunch, but most of the time he kills me with that run game and pass defense. Based on the way he plays me, I cannot understand how he’s only made the playoffs a few times. Other than the time he went an entire game without throwing a pass against Lefty in Madden 15, his commitment to the run game inspires me.
I’ll be honest, I literally can’t remember a game we played before this cycle. Jim told me that I had a stupid win where I threw it to McCown on 4th and 30 to win the game. I vaguely remember that happening. If he hates playing me because of that game, I completely understand. Both games this cycle have been way fun though. Can’t wait to see Jim break through to the playoffs.
My favorite game against the commish was my first season in RedZone. You can watch the highlights here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2NIW3wvGHA. That game was a blast for me. I was just pumped that I had a chance to beat the vaunted Adel, even if I came up a little short at the end. Little did I know, he had been freaking out about all of my shotgun runs in GroupMe the whole game. By the way, I intentionally game-planned to have a ton of shotgun runs to pull him out of his base defense because that Seahawks run defense was legendary.
We haven’t played a ton in RedZone, but this cycle we started talking strategy in PM’s. I learned a lot from Weed and realized that he is actually one of the more cerebral players in RedZone. Regardless of what Adel and Moji say, he absolutely deserves his Super Bowl victory. There is a reason the Bengals are the only team this cycle to have a winning record every single season. I think Weed is the only other person that was as excited as I was after winning the Super Bowl.
We have only played once, but it was a fun game. Pat, I know you are new to Madden and it didn’t help getting tossed into a division with Weed, Adel, and Killah right off the bat. I can tell you though (as someone who only won 1 division game for the entirety of Madden 15) that you’ll break though and playing against those guys will only make you better in the long run.
We’ve obviously never played. I gave him a hard time about running 4-4 as your base defense (so lame) but honestly I have not heard anyone complain about his play style. I look forward to eventually getting to play Steelers Guy. If you’re reading this, just remember that you can disagree with someone without taking a dump all over their opinion.
My favorite memory of playing commish (I know, I was as surprised as you) was a classic game in Madden 16. We had like 4 lead changes in the 4th quarter and I ended up winning on a stupid streak play to McCown (much like with Jim except I remember this one vividly). Watkins got hurt that game, so I force fed it to McCown and he ended up with 18 receptions and 250+ yards. I think the only person in the league that wasn’t upset about it was JP. Even though he was probably seething, he didn’t (and never does) get sucked into the fray and just congratulated me on the big win. I’m surprised JP has only won Most Fun to Play once.
My favorite game against Mans was last cycle when he was the Bears and I was the Bills. I desperately needed a win to stay in the division hunt against Beech and Metalskull. He had already been eliminated from the playoffs (that division was brutal) so I figured this was a game I should get. Right off the bat, things are looking great because all he had to play with is a broken controller that registered the left stick as up when it was neutral. Mans could barely even keep his guys on the field, let alone play a coherent game. Did it matter? No! He stayed even with me the whole first half despite being at a huge disadvantage. Then Ian brings him a good controller at halftime and I get blown out in the second half.
I always hated playing Eddie back in Madden 15 and 16. Even though he was usually lower than me in the standings, I could never beat him. There was one play that I could not stop and he had like 10 different versions in his playbook. It was 2 TE’s, 2 WR’s. Both WR’s on the same side, the outside receiver runs a streak and the inside runs a post. The TE’s both run a route away from the side of WR’s. He had it both with and without play-action, in singleback, pistol, and shotgun. Anyway, I loved that we had great games no matter where we were at in the standings.
I cannot for the life of me remember playing Aaron as the Giants. I always enjoyed him driving Sin nuts by the way he was building the Giants though. Our games this cycle have been way fun and I was pumped to see him make a run last season. Honestly, that was one of the best turnarounds in RedZone history.
My favorite memory isn’t from a game, but when I picked Semper (Faclons) over Tauph (Panthers) to make the playoffs in my first Pythagorean column in Madden 16. I said something like “These teams are so close, I’m going with the better coach in Chris over Tauph.” I had played Semper a bunch in Madden 15 when he was the Patriots and Tauph had struggled with the Saints (he missed a few seasons because of deployment). No matter, he took it personally and thrashed me in GroupMe. I honestly thought he hated me until he asked me to do “Hold That W” with him.
My favorite game against Ramesu was my very first playoff game, Browns vs. Bills (and my only playoff game before this cycle). He had been in the playoffs plenty in Madden 16, but I was so nervous as a playoff virgin. He knew my game well and limited my insane passing offense (RaShawn McCown got hurt in Week 17). It was close throughout, but he ended up pulling away late. Thanks for popping my playoff cherry sir.
My very first RedZone game was against Trent. He should have won, but we desync’d in the 4th so we played again. I believe he were up 10-ish points at that point. The second game was close and I made a huge comeback in the final minutes to get the W. Trent never complained once. Such a fun game and a great way to join the best Madden League in the world. Check out the recap with videos here: http://www.operationsports.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2046761983&postcount=3
I know everyone complains about his gameplay, but honestly all of our games have been fun. I don’t recall anything shady going on. Now if Tiko could just stop blaming every bad pass on either: wrong button, madden comeback logic, sliders, or game speed, he wouldn’t be a two time Least Fun winner.