As somebody who grew up playing Madden just like the rest of you, one of the things I always found annoying about the game was how the classic teams never had the player’s actual names.  Now I would play with the 85 Bears more often than any other team, and although I knew that RB #34 was Walter Payton, it still would have been nice to see his actual name on there.

It would seem that I’m not the only one who feels this way.  Apparently the players who were on those teams would have enjoyed seeing their names on the screen as well while watching their grandsons play.   After all, there’s a nice chunk of change to be made from those licensing rights, and it shouldn’t just be divided amongst the current players in the NFL.   And now, thanks to a U.S. Federal jury, it won’t be.

From the USA TODAY:

A U.S. federal jury on Monday ordered the NFL Players Association to pay $28.1 million to retired players after finding the union failed to properly market their images.

The jury said the union owed the retirees $7.1 million in actual damages for failing to include them in lucrative marketing deals with Electronic Arts Inc., the maker of the popular “Madden NFL” video games, sporting card companies and other sponsorship agreements.

Hall of Fame cornerback Herb Adderley filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of 2,056 retired players who contend the union failed to actively pursue marketing deals on their behalf with video games, trading cards and others sports products.

Adderley, whom you know better as CB #24 on the 67 Packers, put the whole thing in perspective after the verdict was announced.

“I won three Super Bowls and this feels better than all of them combined,” Adderley said. “I always felt I had one big play left.”

Well Herb, it’s not that big of a payday.  Yeah, the $28.1 million sounds nice, but when divided evenly among the 2,056 players involved in the suit, it works out to about $13,667.32 cents for each player.   A nice payday for sure, but not exactly life changing.  Of course, nothing has been decided yet about how the money will be doled out, so maybe Adderley will end up getting a bigger percentage since he spearheaded the entire thing.

Now if only they could get the NFLPA to pay their medical bills.