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All-Pro Football 2K8
Reason for controversy: The inclusion of "alleged" double-murderer OJ Simpson on the player roster.
2K Games was desperate. In 2004, just as their football franchise was beginning to give the Madden monopoly some serious competition, EA went and bought exclusive rights to the entire NFL license... plus the official teams, stadiums, logos and players... plus the ESPN brand. With no tools to work with, how could any other pigskin simulator possibly hope to survive?
You get creative. You side step the current NFL rosters and sign a deal with the players' union to feature all the famous athletes of previous generations. And if one of those former athletes happens to be a notorious man accused of brutal double homicide, a man widely believed to have lied and cheated his way out of a guilty verdict, an "innocent" man who nevertheless wrote a book entitled If I Did It... well, you just look the other way and hope nobody notices.
How did the media miss this one? Actually, it's entirely possible that 2K hoped someone would notice the presence of Simpson in their game. Might sell more copies, after all. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Madden's shadow is a dark, dark place where the competition tends to go unseen. They could throw Charles Manson on the roster and people would still pay more attention to the latest tweak in EA's product.
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