Fansided

EA Sports apologized for censoring Kaepernick’s name in Madden 19

By David Rouben

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 07: Colin Kaepernick attends as O, The Oprah Magazine hosts special NYC screening of 'A Wrinkle In Time' at Walter Reade Theater at Walter Reade Theater on March 7, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 07: Colin Kaepernick attends as O, The Oprah Magazine hosts special NYC screening of 'A Wrinkle In Time' at Walter Reade Theater at Walter Reade Theater on March 7, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images) /
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After gamers caught wind of Colin Kaepernick’s name being censored on the Madden 19 soundtrack, EA Sports apologized and will add it back in an update.

With every new Madden game comes new features. Everyone likes to call each iteration of Madden a roster update, but they’ve taken the time to add some new modes recently, like Longshot last year. One thing that always changes, though, is the soundtrack, and it’s one of the most prominent part of the game since people spend most of their time in the menus.

Madden tends to go overboard when it comes to censoring lyrics, but one censor caught the attention of people that got an early copy of Madden 19. YG’s posse cut “Big Bank” was included on the soundtrack, and on his verse, Big Sean name drops Colin Kaepernick. However, his name was censored in the Madden 19 version of the song, and when gamers caught wind of it, the blowback was swift.

His girlfriend Nessa has been tweeting non-stop since the video started making the runs. Big Sean said he didn’t approve of the censor, which drew a favorable response from Kaepernick himself:

https://twitter.com/Kaepernick7/status/1025147789397901313

That prompted EA Sports to take action and issue an apology. In the statement, they said “Members of our team misunderstood the fact that while we don’t have rights to include Colin Kaepernick in the game, this doesn’t affect soundtracks.” They also promised to put his name back in the song in an Aug. 6 update.

While the apology is well-intentioned, few fans are willing to accept it. A big reason for that is because they censored Kaepernick’s name in Madden 18 as well, but it didn’t generate nearly as much controversy as it did this year. Perhaps that’s because people were still holding out hope that a team would sign him. But after a year of remaining unemployed, more and more fans are coming around to the idea that he’s being blackballed.

Next. Madden 19 review. dark

Since being out of the league, Kaepernick has been involved in a high-profile collusion case against the NFL. He must feel that this latest incident with Madden 19 only strengthens his argument.