Why was Michael Vick, who hasn’t played in the National Football League since 2015, nationally trending on Twitter on Saturday night?
Video games.
Vick, 40, is arguably the most-dominant video game athlete in football history (he was pretty good in real life, too).
The former Atlanta Falcons superstar hit his video game peak in Madden 04. Vick was basically unstoppable in that game, as many on Twitter pointed out on Saturday night.
Who are you taking if you had to pick the greatest video game athlete of all time? 🎮 pic.twitter.com/KygXAdpjuA
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 28, 2021
There are a lot of good choices, there, but it’s tough to go against Vick in Madden 04.
Michael Vick was a human cheat code in Madden 2004. pic.twitter.com/W1oMk33mt7
— Randy Cruz (@randyjcruz) February 28, 2021
What it looked like Trying to catch Vick in madden 04 pic.twitter.com/pDN02QduSa
— bond442 (@Therealbond442) February 28, 2021
Madden had to change the entire game for Vick. https://t.co/o4JqhQwOS9
— FourEyes (@paul_da1uwant7) February 28, 2021
“Michael Vick was the greatest quarterback in Madden history, because his speed rating as a QB was astronomical, and there was nothing you could do stop him,” Clint Oldenburg, former NFL lineman and game developer with the Madden franchise, said in an interview with Gamesradar back in 2016. “For a number of years before I got here, features were added to the game specifically to stop Vick. Now [to prevent one player from being similarly overpowering] we try to keep ratings within a certain range. So if a QB comes out of the draft with a 99 speed rating, A, B and C is done in the game engine to make sure everything is balanced.”
Who’s your pick for the most-dominant athlete in video game history?