Madden 23’s CPR celebration is being removed following Damar Hamlin’s collapse

EA Sports is removing the a CPR touchdown celebration from Madden 23 in response to Damar Hamlin’s recent collapse.

Thankfully, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is now on the road to recovery after his collapse due to cardiac arrest in the Week 17 game against the Bengals, and he’s been moved from Cincinnati to Buffalo.

After this incident, EA Sports confirmed to CBS Sports that the company will remove a touchdown celebration animation from Madden NFL 23. This celebration sees one player lie on the ground while another pretends to shock him back to life, mimicking the process of CPR.

It’s a celebration we’ve seen occasionally in the NFL, which included last Sunday — Pittsburgh Steelers players did a CPR celebration during their game against the Cleveland Browns. It’s of course in poor taste in the wake of Hamlin’s collapse, which is why EA Sports are keeping it out of the Madden games for the time being.

This comes not long after Madden 23 faced harsh criticism from players after a technical problem caused many players to permanently lose their save files last week, forcing them to restart their franchise mode careers.

Written by Marco Wutz and Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.

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