A CPR touchdown celebration featured in Madden NFL 23 is to be removed following American football star Damar Hamlin suffering cardiac event mid-game.
The Buffalo Bills player collapsed in the game on January 2 after performing a tackle while competing from the Cincinnati Bengals.
Medical personnel performed CPR and applied an automated defibrillator and other forms of aid before Hamlin was removed the area by an ambulance. He required a breathing tube and his condition was crucial for several days, and while he's since improved he remains hospitalised.
Electronic Arts (EA) has now asserted it'll take away the CPR touchdown celebration from Madden NFL 23 inside a future update. The move in question shows one person in the scoring team laying on the grass while another player administers pretend CPR, along with a third jolts him with a pretend defibrillator.
“EA Sports takes steps to remove the celebration from Madden NFL 23 via an update in the future,” an agent said in a statement to PC Gamer. EA didn't specify the main reason, however, it’s assumed that it’s with regards to Hamlin.
A date for that update hasn’t been announced.
It isn’t the very first time that EA has removed controversial content from Madden NFL games.
In 2023, it pulled Washington’s racist team name from Madden 21 and in 2023 it removed former NFL coach Jon Gruden from Madden 22 after it was found that Gruden had used racist and homophobic slurs in emails sent between 2011 and 2023.
Meanwhile, in other EA and sports gaming news, Cristiano Ronaldo has had his stats downgraded in FIFA 23 carrying out a disastrous few months on the pitch.
