Money, Money, Money – Abba. Money for Nothing – Dire Straits. Money’s Too Tight To Mention – Simply Red. If we were knocking up an alternative music playlist for EA Sports College Football 27, maybe we’d cheekily try and sneak these tunes in, following the news that legendary football coach Deion Sanders is very much not present and correct in the game, seemingly over a dispute about how much money he was offered for his likeness.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the Colorado Buffaloes new season, Sanders responded to a question about his absence saying, “If I’m not in the game, that means they weren’t paying enough.”
You can watch the clip below and there is a bit of an awkward silence which Sanders then attempts to fill with “I don’t know about the video games. I have a wonderful team that handles a lot of business for me. If I’m not in the game, that means they weren’t paying enough. It probably didn’t fit where we’re going right now. That’s probably it. It was probably just that simplistic.”
When College Football re-emerged from years in the wilderness it was reported that EA paid the athletes a flat $600 for their likeness in the game. This is now rumored to have gone up to around $1,500 and they all get a copy of the game! Star athletes get to negotiate their rights separately, but if you are the dude that mainly carries the water on, you are not getting rich from your appearance here.
Deion Sanders on not being in the new EA Sports College Football game: "If I'm not in the game, that means they weren't paying enough." pic.twitter.com/WIwx2Hqv9b
Sanders is not the only big name coach absent from the game as it seems EA aren’t as concerned with nailing down contracts for the brains trust as it is the actual athletes. So who else is missing a creepy video game likeness?
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick makes no appearance, although that is no huge surprise as one of the biggest coaching legends of all time continually swerved appearing in the Madden series during his years in the NFL.
Miami’s Mario Cristobal, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall are also notable absentees from the 27 version of the game, which will, for the first time, also make it to the PC in a huge move for the rebooted franchise.
We have reached out to EA Sports to see if they have a response to Sanders comments.
Authored by
Paul McNally
Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation Pro, Amiga Action, Mega Action, ST Action, GQ, Loaded, and the The Mirror. He has also hosted panels at retro-gaming conventions and can regularly be found guesting on gaming podcasts and Twitch shows. Believing that the reader deserves actually to enjoy what they are reading is a big part of Paul’s ethos when it comes to gaming journalism, elevating the sites he works on above the norm.
