You young whipper snappers. Back when I played NFL Blitz on the original Sony Playstation, the controllers were attached to the system and they didn’t vibrate, games were saved on memory cards and Madden was a much more boring franchise than it is today.

The original NFL Blitz is still one of my all-time favorite games. There was something about playing 7-on-7 with virtually no rules. In the original Blitz you could tackle wide receivers while the ball was in the air, make late hits and body slams, punch players or do any of the stuff you wished you would have seen in the XFL. Obviously, the NFL Players Association quickly severed its ties with the controversial video game franchise, but the first few years of NFL Blitz were epic.

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with the Ravens. Well, Ravens running back Ray Rice was voted by the fans as this year’s NFL Blitz cover athlete. Rice beat out Patrick Willis and Roddy White in the new game set to hit the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network on January 4.

“As a kid I remember going to an arcade down in my hometown and me and my boys used to go after it all day in ‘NFL Blitz,'” Rice said according to Jon Robinson of ESPN.com. “It’s 7-on-7 football, players catching on fire … all that good stuff you just don’t find in other games.” Unfortunately without the body slams and cheap shots.

Anyone out there still playing NFL Blitz?