Humble... Humble...

The best scene in the very forgettable Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston movie The Breakup was when Vince's character is entertaining Jen's date by beating the snot out of him in Madden. All while talking enough trash to fill a dumpster. My love and I were cracking up during that scene as the gameplay, mannerisms and trashtalking were all very similar to the way I play Madden.

I used to bill myself as the "best Madden player I know". I would routinely and easily beat every person I knew who played. It got to be so bad that playing against the machine was never enough anymore. I would beat the machine at All-Madden level by mind-boggling scores. The game just wasn't fun anymore. I would continue to buy each season's game, but always with a little less anticipation than the year before.

That all changed with the 07 SuperBowl. One of my buddies (who plays a lot of Madden) came over before the game and we were going to play the SuperBowl before it happened. He was the Colts and I was the Bears. We went back and forth for a bit before a touchdown pass by Manning and then a interception thrown by Grossman which led to another Manning touchdown. At the half I was down two scores when we had to shut down the game as the real SuperBowl was starting. My buddy gushed over how easy the controls on the PS2 were. For the first time in years I felt the sting of defeat (even if we did just end the game at the half).

The game was the Madden wakeup I needed. I didn't play that console version a lot as I played most of that season on the PSP. For Madden 08 I bought the game early and played a few games. I'm almost done with a Dallas Cowboys season. So although I haven't played a ton, I know how to use my Cowboys.

The same buddy who was whipping me that SuperBowl sunday invited us over for Monday Night Football this past season. During halftime he decided to throw Madden 08 on his XBox360. I had never played the XBox before and I'm sure my buddy was taking it easy on me. We randomized teams and I ended up with the Jaguars and he ended up with the Cardinals. After a close game and lots of back and forth, David Garrard ended up throwing a late touchdown to Matt Jones to win the game. I didnt take that result too seriously as I thought it was fluke.

My buddy came by this past weekend and so as we normally do we tossed Madden in. We selected our respective favorite teams (Eagles for him, Cowboys for me) switched up our offenses (I've run the Mike Shanahan Denevr offense for almost 4 years now) and were ready to get rolling. As we started the game, I started to run my slow down offense. Two tightends, lots of running. I drove right down the field and scored. Again and again and again. I ended up dominating the game on the ground (and when the defense switched to a run prevent Romo ended up going 19-22 with 4 touchdowns). It was one of the most satisfying Madden wins I've had in years. True it was a little tainted because my buddy doesnt play PS2 very much and he thought the conrols were a little different. So although I did dominate in a 44-28 win, I look forward to playing again and more in the future.