nfl

The National Football League's desire to bring technology to the game may be exciting to techie sports fans, but a recent report claiming that the league wants to put microchips into its footballs to increase referee accuracy could cause significant debate between the purists who welcome human error and those who want every call to be right.

According to Reuters, a German chip company called Cairos Technologies is currently in talks with the NFL to bring its microchip technology to footballs. The technology, which was originally designed for soccer balls, helps referees know when the ball has crossed a … Read more

I am a Jets fan. Moreso, I'm an NFL fan. And I'm an owner of an iPhone 3GS and an iPad. Naturally, I'm awaiting this season with the hope that there will be some way to watch games on a mobile device that doesn't involve both DirecTV and the expensive NFL Sunday Ticket package.

Well, I'm out of luck there.

Word has broken on this year's Sunday Ticket To-Go package, a follow-up to last year's Sunday Ticket mobile experience that debuted on the iPhone. Last year's edition was free provided you paid … Read more

A former football player is suing Electronic Arts on behalf of about 6,000 retired National Football League players who claim their likenesses were included in Madden NFL 09, but they weren't paid for it.

The complaint (PDF), filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, claims that EA engaged in "the unlawful use of retired NFL players' likenesses in video games created, marketed, and sold by EA." The plaintiffs said EA did not obtain "prior authorization and permission" and that by not doing so, was "unjustly enriched."

Attorneys for Michael E. … Read more

LATROBE, Pa.--When you're driving randomly across Pennsylvania and fate hands you a chance to visit the training camp of the Pittsburgh Steelers, you don't stop to consider whether you've got the time.

That was my conclusion Sunday as I was driving east on U.S. Route 30 on an all-day trek toward Gettysburg. These are the last days of my six-week Road Trip 2010 project, and I'm making my way back to Washington, D.C., to fly home.

In my book, the last few days of driving had better have the least amount of time … Read more

There is another football game in town, and it's a new one: it's called Backbreaker, and it's been developed by NaturalMotion. It doesn't have an NFL license. It's not Madden. So why should anybody be interested? Well, there's the real challenge.

Madden's sales have been dropping off. Its stronghold monopoly on NFL video games remains absurd and tends to result in laziness in the game's innovations. However, there are a lot of things Madden still does right. Statistical engines, play-calling realism, and online play are still second to none. We have a soft spot for the days when 2K Football actually had a better game, and kept Madden honest. And, at first glance, Backbreaker reminds us of that game's debut back in 1999.

Scott: Backbreaker's real claim to fame is its physics engine, the same Euphoria system that's in games ranging from GTA IV to The Force Unleashed. Tackles and player motions are astonishing and fun to watch, and have less predictable outcomes than the sometimes canned-feeling Madden tackles. Backbreaker also lowers the perspective closer down to field level, creating a shaky-cam realism that aims to shake players out of the complacent eagle-eye Madden view that turns plays into living schematics.

Because Backbreaker has no NFL license, it's created a bunch of fictional teams and stadiums in the spirit of NFL Blitz. Stadium designs are often overexaggerated and colossal, and the borderline reckless feel of the game is a nice break from Madden (although it's not as vicious as Blitz). The playbook, however, is far smaller than Madden's, and the control scheme is reinvented. It's not fully explained or easy to use.

Players can customize their teams with a graphics-editing engine, inviting a lot of risque designs. Playing online against others might lead to discovering some interesting acts of creativity. It's clever, but a gimmick in the long run. Not having an NFL license is a deal-killer for any game that wants to be about football.

The real moments when Backbreaker shines are on scrambles and running plays.… Read more

Editor's note: This is the first installment of "45 minutes on IM," a new interview series that I will be doing, hopefully weekly. Instant message is hardly the newest or hottest communication medium, but it is a very effective way to have a conversation. Because the medium is kind of contemporaneous, I've decided to maintain a bit of the on-the-fly flavor of the discussion, including the occasional "all-caps" response. But we'll skip the smileys. Please enjoy these interviews, and if you have suggestions or feedback, please let me know.

If you've been … Read more

NFL stars have a real talent. It's just that sometimes their real talent for not quite thinking things through can get them into trouble.

So I would be curious what you might feel about the latest enterprise from Jeremy Shockey, the Super Bowl-winning tight end of the New Orleans Saints.

Shockey has a singular grasp of the power of social networking, as well as that of the English language. So he has announced a contest on his Facebook page, a contest that will hopefully throw up one woman who "deserves" to date him.

I know that there … Read more

Is "poke" the new Konami Code? Maybe not literally, but one Electronic Arts executive has hinted that at least one of the gaming behemoth's titles is headed to Facebook, further blurring the line between social-networking applications and the game industry.

In a Bloomberg TV interview, EA Sports President Peter Moore obliquely said, "you'll see us on Facebook, going forward," with regard to its storied "Madden NFL" franchise.

Blogger Nick O'Neill of Social Times quotes someone anonymous saying this does, indeed, mean that there will be a Facebook version of "Madden … Read more

Wilson might be the only host on The 404 who watched the entire big game Sunday, so we don't spend too much time talking about the actual game and instead stick to the commercials. Ads this year included Google's first Super Bowl ad. Also, HomeAway revitalized the Griswold family from National Lampoon's "Vacation", and Motorola aired a commercial with Megan Fox selling something...we just don't remember what it is.

We also have a story about Comcast changing its name to Xfinity. Starting next week, its cable television, telephone, and Internet services will feature the rebranded name in 11 markets. In what seems like an effort to give a sharper edge to the brand name, the change is taking heavy fire from sites like The Consumerist, which claim that the new Xfinity name has an X-rated/pornographic/stupid/energy drink connotation.

Finally, we run down a list of the 10 most needlessly perverted mainstream games. Follow along as we chat about some of the most revealing games in console history with titles like Dead or Alive, The Sims, and Bayonetta leading the scandal. Oh my. Speaking of which, we hate to be the ones to report it, but Microsoft is no longer offering online support for original Xbox games like Halo 2 and Counterstrike. Bummer!