Virtual Comeback?
The Bad Newz Kennels case has tarnished Vick's public image, and his forthcoming imprisonment most likely means the end of his NFL career. Just because his professional career is near its end, however, does not mean that players have seen the last of Michael Vick in video games.
Lawrence Taylor, a Hall of Fame linebacker for the New York Giants, was suspended from the NFL in 1988 for testing positive for cocaine, but still appeared in Tecmo Bowl the following year. Even a 1996 arrest for attempted possession of crack cocaine couldn't keep Taylor from making cameo in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as fictional football star BJ Smith. Smith was a drug-addicted car salesman who admitted to robbing a liquor store on one of the game's radio stations.
LT as BJ Smith in 2002.
Taylor also starred in Blitz: The League, released in 2005. Taylor played the part of Quentin Sands, a linebacker who puts a career-ending hit on the player's star quarterback, reminiscient of the one Taylor put on Joe Theissmann on Monday Night Football in 1985. Sands, like all players in Blitz: The League, abused steroids. Players also had the option to send prostitutes to the opposing team's hotel room, a practice Taylor admitted to in a 2003 interview with Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes.
O.J. Simpson is a playable character in All-Pro Football 2K8, released earlier this summer by 2K Sports. Simpson, a six-time Pro Bowl running back for the Buffalo Bills, was tried for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, in 1994. Simpson was acquitted of all charges in the highly-publicized criminal case, but he was found liable for their deaths in a civil suit filed in 1997.
Whether Vick makes a return to video games to challenge Cunningham for the mantle of most versatile player in virtual football history remains to be seen. Until he does, gamers will suffer. His premature exit from the Madden series robs gamers of the chance to play as a one-of-a-kind character. Vick's freedom, career, and legacy are in doubt, but it is certain that Madden will never see another like him.
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