The erasure of Colin Kaepernick from the National Football League took an unusual turn on Thursday when it was revealed the quarterback’s name has been censored from a song on the soundtrack of EA Sports’ forthcoming Madden NFL 19 video game.



The song, Big Bank, the second single off Compton rapper YG’s latest album featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Nicki Minaj, is one of 30 tracks that appears on this year’s soundtrack for the best-selling gridiron simulation, which hits shelves on 10 August.

The third verse on the uncensored version of the song includes a broadly innocuous lyrical reference to Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback whose protest of racial injustice and police brutality have left him jobless since his contract expired after the 2016 season: “You boys all cap, I’m more Colin Kaepernick” raps Big Sean.

But a video shared Thursday on Twitter and given wider exposure after it was retweeted by Kaepernick’s girlfriend, Nessa Diab, showed the “clean” version of the track as it sounds in the game: with Kaepernick’s name scrubbed from the recording in the same way as if it were profanity or a racial slur.

bad enough @Kaepernick7 still not signed, but now they even edit his name out in this year’s @EAMaddenNFL during @BigSean verse, smh pic.twitter.com/3nvkB26z5r — Mr. Changing Lives (@jeanclervil) August 2, 2018

Pro Football Talk confirmed Kaepernick’s name was removed from the track on their advance copy of the game.

Big Sean addressed in a tweet later Thursday, describing the decision as “disappointing and appalling”. Shortly after Kaepernick shared the statement, thanking him for his support.

Much love brother! Thank you for having my back!✊🏾 https://t.co/yKz3nBMiPb — Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) August 2, 2018

EA Sports described the edit in a statement to the Guardian as an “unfortunate mistake”.

“We made an unfortunate mistake with our Madden NFL soundtrack,” a spokesperson for the publisher said in an email late Thursday. “Members of our team misunderstood the fact that while we don’t have rights to include Colin Kaepernick in the game, this doesn’t affect soundtracks. We messed up, and the edit should never have happened.

“We will make it right with an update to Madden NFL 19 on August 6 that will include the reference again. We meant no disrespect, and we apologize to Colin, to YG and Big Sean, to the NFL, to all of their fans and our players for this mistake.”

Kaepernick, who came off the bench as a mid-season injury replacement and helmed San Francisco to Super Bowl XLVII before the league caught up to his running-and-passing style, opted out of his contract with the 49ers in March 2016 but has remained unsigned. A number of NFL players, including former Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, believe he is being blackballed by NFL teams for his political protest.

Sherman told ESPN last year that Kaepernick’s remaining unsigned has little to do with the quality of his play and everything to do with his national anthem protest of last year. “It has nothing to do with football. You can see that,” Sherman said.

Asked why Kaepernick had not yet been picked up by a new team, Sherman said: “It’s difficult to see because he’s played at such a high level, and you see guys, quarterbacks, who have never played at a high level being signed by teams. So it’s difficult to understand.”

Kaepernick completed 59.2% of his passes, averaged 6.8 yards per attempt and threw 16 touchdowns with four interceptions in 12 games for the 49ers in the 2016 campaign, his last in the league. But his refusal to stand for the anthem in the name of his principles became a far bigger story than his on-field performance.

The only recent hint of interest from an NFL team came in April when the 30-year-old was briefly linked with the Seahawks, but an ESPN report indicated the invitation for a try-out was rescinded when the quarterback would not say whether he planned to consider kneeling.

A 2013 feature on the Madden video-game franchise published by CNN reported that Electronic Arts, which has published a new installment to the popular series every year since 1990, pays the NFL and the players’ union a total of $50m to be the exclusive video game licensee, also noting the series has collectively generated upwards of $4bn in revenue with more than 100m copies sold.