When the rating came out this week for the Madden21 video game, Maxx Crosby wasn’t pleased with his rating. Despite being the highest-rated edge rusher on his team, it was not nearly good enough in the eyes.
“I’m not happy at all. It’s garbage,” said Crosby in a phone conversation from Las Vegas. “They have me as a 77. And just looking at what they rated some other people, I’m just like ‘all right…I’ve seen some of the stuff and I was just like they’re not even watching football.”
A single grade or rating of an NFL player from most outlets probably isn’t going to mean much to the average fan. But Madden 21 ratings are different. And how they are different can only be truly felt by the players who are featured in the game.
For that reason, these ratings mean something more to these players. It’s about pride, bragging rights, and respect among their peers. And it’s about feeling like when the fans are playing the game that they want this player on their team.
“It’s funny, people are just like ‘Aw, it’s just a video game’ but it’s like naw it’s just disrespectful. That’s the way I take it. I don’t care if it’s a video game or not. It’s like everyone plays Madden, I play Madden, and knowing some other guys that are rated above me and way above me I play against and see, I’m just like ‘all right’.”
Crosby has a beef here for sure. One theory as to his lower rating is that those who put them together want to see more than one season of production. But that theory goes out the window easily when you see some other players, including rookies that get much higher grades for equal or less experience.
For instance, fellow drafted rookie Josh Jacobs gets a respectable 88 rating.
“Josh 100% deserves it. But I think I deserve it too,” Crosby added. “We both balled out, so why aren’t we both higher? He was up for Offensive Rookie of the Year, I was I think runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year, so why am I a 77? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“I guess because I’m a fourth-rounder I gotta prove myself more than some other people. . . I just got to go and ball out even more.”
If you don’t think this motivation is strong, you haven’t been paying attention. A perfect example is former Raiders edge rusher Khalil Mack who wore number 46 at Buffalo because that’s the rating he was given coming out of High School by the College Football video game. He would take that motivation and become the 4th overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft.
While I don’t think Crosby is going to be asking Trent Brown to give him his number 77 anytime soon, he will be putting it up in his locker and using that rating as a symbol that he’s yet again being underrated, just as he has been throughout his football career.
“If I was a first-rounder and they saw what I did at the combine, then it would be a whole other conversation,” Crosby said. “But it is what it is. I’ve always done that though. I came from Eastern Michigan. I didn’t come from the ACC or SEC or BigTen so I just got to work. I gotta do extra. That’s how I play. I love it, honestly. It’s more motivation.”
So, before you poopoo these ratings as being meaningless, consider the level of pride these players take in them and how it drives them. Then be thankful.
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