Steelers Daily News & Links: Mike Tomlin Teams Up with EA Sports; Sunday Ticket Verdict Overturned
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? NFL.com: Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin helped developers of ‘Madden NFL 25′ with the new kickoff format — and vice versa.
During a break at the Annual League Meeting, where the new kickoff format was approved, Tomlin was having his face digitally scanned by EA’s art department for inclusion in the upcoming NFL title when he posed a question to an EA employee. The coach, who is a member of the Competition Committee, which developed and proposed the changes to the kickoff, asked what the company was planning to do with it in Madden.
Before long, Mike Tomlin was communicating with the Madden gameplay team, hopping on Zoom calls while the Madden team played the game for Tomlin to watch, as EA Sports’ Clint Oldenburg later told NFL.com.
“We’re going into uncharted territory with this kickoff concept,” Tomlin said, in a statement provided by EA Sports. “There’s actually no real visuals of the concept. My sons play all the EA Sports games. I have a lot of respect for the realism of their product. We reached out to those guys and wanted to just kind of get a visual, maybe, of some of the schematics — how the alignment might affect the timing of blocks and so forth.
“That game is more than entertainment from my perspective — it is a real simulator. As we all move into uncharted territory in terms of not knowing what these concepts look like, I viewed it as a potential tool to aid us in teaching and gaining some understanding and experience where there is none, while at the same time maybe helping them do what it is that they needed to do, because really they had the same issues that we did.”
? Pro Football Talk: Per multiple reports, Judge Philip Gutierrez has overturned the $4.7 billion verdict against the NFL in the Sunday Ticket antitrust class action. The ruling comes one day after a three-hour hearing on the NFL’s attack on the jury’s decision.
The verdict, if upheld, would have automatically become a $14.1 billion judgment.
Via Eriq Gardner of Puck, the judge found the plaintiffs’ economic experts to be unreliable, and the jury’s award to be based not on the evidence and reasonable inferences but guesswork or speculation.
? Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher reflected on the time that the Carolina Panthers mascot downed a live punt in 1996. On the next play, quarterback Kordell Stewart rushed for an 80-yard touchdown.
Coach Cowher and The NFL Today crew relived that time the Panthers Mascot DOWNED A LIVE PUNT 🤣
Watch the full video on YouTube 📺 pic.twitter.com/w58OlQuVMm
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) August 1, 2024
? Steelers All-Pro outside linebacker T.J. Watt was rated 97 overall in Madden NFL 25, which is third-best among edge rushers. Only Micah Parsons (98 overall) and Myles Garrett (98 overall) had better ratings.
? First Take discussed if the Steelers should start Justin Fields over Russell Wilson.
https://twitter.com/Blitz_Burgh/status/1819176451037364478
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