In 2004, Electronic Arts which is the publisher of the Madden football video game series signed a 10-year exclusivity deal to secure the exclusive rights to produce NFL and NFLPA-licensed video games on consoles. This agreement caused the end to several football franchises including the NFL2K series and the NFL fever series. The reasoning behind the exclusive licensing agreement was to have one developer accurately portraying the NFL in the best possible way; however, EA has yet to fulfill on that promise and the series has continued to separate itself further from the game of football each year.

The NFL is aired on several networks with unique presentations including CBS for Thursday night and Sunday games, Fox which broadcasts Sunday games including the Super Bowl, NBC which broadcasts Sunday Night Football and ESPN which broadcasts Monday Night Football. EA has failed to accurately represent these broadcasts in every game since they have controlled the exclusive license with the NFL. EA has also failed to implement the NFL network which is the #1 source for NFL information throughout the year and not to mention that they also broadcast Thursday night Football games. EA has never implemented any pregame, halftime, post-game presentations that reflects the product of the NFL. Major NFL events such as Free Agency, the NFL Draft,Hall of Fame game and NFL Kickoff and are not even close to resembling the accuracy of today's NFL. EA continues to disappoint beloved NFL fans on the lack of presentation and this carries on throughout the Madden series in every yearly edition.

The game play of the Madden series continues to lack behind the current state of the NFL and the end product results in to many countless "bugs" and "glitches" that have made the game almost unplayable at times. The consumer ends up waiting 2-3 months before EA releases a patch to fix the issues, which end up creating more "bugs" and "glitches" that affect the overall experience of the game. After all these years with the exclusive license EA has still been unable to accurately implement several basic concepts of football in to the game such as accurate portrayal of offensive line and defensive line interaction, various stunts by defensive lines, double teaming and 2-gap blocking by the offensive line, the 3-4 defensive system, penalties, coaches challenges, playbooks and play calling and much more. The game of football all starts up front between the interaction of the offensive and defensive linemen.

The game of football all starts up front between the interaction of the offensive and defensive linemen. Madden has failed every year to fix the problems that continue to show between the offensive and defensive linemen. The offensive line in madden do not block as they should. Madden has experienced reoccurring "bugs" and glitches" such as suction blocking that continue to plague the game. The offensive line does not double team properly and fails to attack defenders on running plays to accurate create running lanes that you see in the NFL. Even before EA owned the exclusive license agreement, they have failed to properly implement the 3-4 defense that 15 teams in the NFL currently run. The 3-4 defense which typically utilizes a 2-gap system requires the offensive line to double team the blockers and involves more edge rushing. In madden, the 2-gap blocking has not been implemented and due to the suction blocking, edge rushing does not occur as you see in the NFL. Madden continues to keep the same basic penalties year after year and have failed to continue to develop the penalty systems since the exclusive license agreement. Most consumers who play Madden would agree that they can go game after game without ever seeing a single penalty called. This is unheard of in today's NFL. The coaches challenge feature in Madden has been bugged since it was ever implemented and EA continues to ignore the feature. The consumer will agree that this is one of the most "bugged" features of madden and has always been this way. Play calling and playbooks continue to show no improvements or enhancements year after year. Besides changing the colors and fonts, they have both remained almost unchanged for the past ten years. They do not represent what occurs in the NFL today. The lack of customization in play calling, playbooks, creating plays is a disappointing trend that all consumers agree with. The lack of improvments to the basic concepts of football within the Madden series continues to disappoint fans and EA continues to ignore the consumers requests to improve on these aspects of the game.

EA spends months developing Madden for its yearly August release; however, what continues to show for the end product is improvement in graphics and details with an upgraded roster of players and a few new features that remain "buggy" and "glitchy" while the consumer waits 2-3 months for the patch that is supposed to fix the issues but creates additional problems. EA continues to ignore the consumer and focuses on where they continue to make money which is the Madden Ultimate Team mode. MUT is supposed to be a mode that gives fans the opportunity to collect star players, Hall of Famers, and other players to complete in various modes to earn coins or special packs and items. However, EA has made this in to just another way to screw the consumer and earn more money for a poorly implemented game. Despite EA stating that you can fully play MUT without spending any money, EA forces the user to spend real dollars to unlock specific cards and collectibles. EA forces the consumer to buy ten or more packs at a time just to unlock one item as the majority of packs are filled with pointless filler cards.EA spends countless time each week throughout the year to bring in new cards, items, and features. One could only imagine if they did this with the other aspects of the game that the consumer cares more about. Online and offline franchise mode which is supposed to be the heart of Madden, continues to remain undeveloped and extremely lacking to resemble today's product of the NFL.

Ultimately the continued poor performance record of EA reflects on the NFL and what the NFL is about. EA continues to relax as the revenue continues to flow through knowing that the exclusive license agreement is the only way they continue to remain at the top. The developers have lacked the necessary innovation to create an end product that resembles today's NFL. The consumer continues to suffer year after year while constantly demanding more to only be shrugged off by EA who feels no pressure to create a bigger, more entertaining experience. The consumer needs someone to stand up to EA and break this exclusive agreement that is not only unfair, but borderline illegal as the agreement has caused EA to own a monopoly on football video games. Any game that has been developed and released to complete has faltered due to this agreement. The NFL nor EA has nothing to lose by disbanding this exclusive licensing agreement as ultimately, this will create more jobs for the industry, produce more and better quality games that will reflect today's NFL standards while also promoting the NFL and its fans further. Please sign the petition and help bring this matter to attention to have this engagement rightly abolished. Football is America's sport and should continue to represent this in every way possible.

No company should have the exclusive rights to any market or product. This would not be allowed in any other industry. EA has abused this agreement and this system going on 10+ years now. Its now time to stand up and create the necessary changes.