Funniest Glitches Ever Seen in Madden NFL Video Games

Sports video games can go one of two ways: some become must-haves for fans of the sport in question and others turn into the laughingstock of the online sphere.

When it comes to the latter, one of the worst offenders is football, with the NFL making the fatal mistake of consistently selling its video game rights to EA Sports. As a result, they trudge out the exact same game with all the familiar glitches time and time again, infuriating gridiron fans in the process.

Here are some of the most hilarious glitches ever seen in their NFL video games, many of which would be impossible to imitate in the real field of play.

Madden NFL 21

Can we really start anywhere else? The Madden franchise of games is tantamount to what the New York Jets will be this season: garbage.

Over and over again EA get it wrong and this means that some of the best glitches in video game history take place on its pixelated pitches.

One classic is when a receiver and the coverage jump to catch a ball, only for the ball to then remain bobbling on a player’s helmet, with some receivers managing to run all the way to the endzone without ever having the ball in their hands. If this happened in real life it would make selecting NFL picks on matchday almost impossible, and yet in the wacky world of Madden it occurs every few downs.

Among other great glitches are the never-ending stumble, the game freezing indeterminately between downs, and the list goes on…

Caption: At times it seems like NFL video games are play tested by pooches like these rather than coherent human beings

A Long History of Failure

There is a good case to be made that rather than getting better over time, the Madden games have been regressing since 2007, when the well-received Madden NFL 07 hit the shelves.

Since then, there has been NFL 09 which could not even get the rosters and team player photos correct.

Then came NFL 20 in which tackled players ended up in deformed messes on the floor, coming to be known as scorpions, due to their backs being bent at an unnatural angle. It was as painful to play as it was to look at.

And then they serve up NFL 21, with its own fair share of glitches. Surely it is time for the league to get the smelling salts out, revive their senses, and hand their gaming rights to a company that cares.

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