NFL Blitz: The Wild Card Casualty of the Safety Issue

The NFL’s issue with the lawsuits concerning head injuries, long-term effects, concussions and whatnot has put a dark cloud over America’s biggest sport. While it’s not driving away the usually powerhouse sales of the brand, it is putting a slight damper to its reputation. We love football and plan on supporting it for all eternity, but there is a slight tweak to the way we look at the game nowadays.With all the suicides, new studies, potentially incriminating evidence of sweeping vital information under the rug, the NFL has developed a bit of a dark side that was exposed best through Bountygate and the Referee Strike.

While most of the casualties and setbacks to this new image has been described, there is one issue that hasn’t been touched: We have lost a very good and very fun franchise because of this.





And that franchise is NFL Blitz.

Does anyone here remember the ferociously and exaggeratingly violent arcade gem known as NFL Blitz? Back in the late 90s this was the 64-bit version of NBA Jam; an extremely non-realistic sports game that altered and improved the popularity of the sport involved. It was fast-paced, out-of-control, and removed all the technicalities usually associated with NFL.Some can argue that the appeal of the NFL to the youth and the gamers increased a bit as Blitz was your good ol' gridiron game except with wrestling moves, fun animations, wild celebrations, fast-paced action, and just a great way to spend your quarters.

And then the NFL got soft. And then so did the franchise.


After Midway ceased to exist, EA (owners of the NFL license after a shady deal) decided to take on the Blitz name and provided their own spin on it. But the damage is done, how good is Blitz if you remove the late hits and the added oomph that we were used to seeing. Roger Goodell has been on full damage control since the lawsuits began. So with that, gone are all the reputation-damaging gameplay perks of playing a Blitz game. In a financial ironic twist, football is about as big and strong as ever but one of its biggest gaming contributions in history is barely a fraction past a shadow of its former self.

It is always sad when something from the good ol' days cannot be duplicated for modern-day society.


NFL Blitz is one of those examples.