Worthington BLOG: Coronavirus Quarantine Week 4

By Rick Worthington

4/8/20

The Worthington family continues to practice social distancing, as we have for a month now! I think at this point, we are all going a little crazy, and I don’t just mean my family. I miss people I don’t normally miss! Anybody else?

As for me – I have run out of programs to watch on Netflix and Disney Plus. There are no sports on TV now that I have yet to seen already. Personally, I don’t want to watch a game after I already know who wins. Since I don’t usually miss big games on TV, it’s hard for me to tune in. I understand the degree of interest in classic games, like the Boise State vs Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl that re-runs all the time. Personally, I just can’t get too excited about re-runs. That’s just me being honest.

I’ll tell you what I do miss, and I’d love to see something happen to fix this. I want “EA Sports NCAA College Football” back for my Video Game System!!! I’d drop real money to see it happen…TODAY. There are no games to watch. Fans need sports right now, and eSports is the only way I’m getting what I need, so let’s make this happen!

The heart of the issue was the lawsuit against EA Sports and the NCAA led by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, after finding out that the company used his likeness for a classic team without any compensation. There has been some discussion on restarting the College Football franchise of games, as the NCAA is starting to move the wheels on a system-wide allowance for players to capitalize. Clearly – it’s not something that can happen overnight, but somebody needs to get the negotiation process started.

For the record, I played both College Football and College Basketball games before they were dumped by EA Sports because of the lawsuit. I was angry then, and I’m still bitter. My friends and I would choose a college team, and go thru the franchise mode of 20 seasons. There were 8 of us all playing, representing the following schools: Ohio State, USC, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Florida State – and I was Notre Dame.

We recruited and played every game each week for each season. Several times we had multiple undefeated teams and were forced to put together a 4 team playoff. (We were years ahead of the NCAA) Recruiting was brutal, as the game only allows so many “recruiting points” to each team, and we were all going after the same guys – even when we had no idea who was recruiting who. Eventually, you would see a recruit announce his top 3-5 teams, and sure enough, we were all on the same dude.

It was crazy fun, and it was happening when online gaming was just starting to come into play. I miss it, EA Sports! Bring it back already!

Meanwhile – I have a fantasy football league with the same group of guys these days. It’s probably easier for all of us to get together now once a year on draft day, than when we were all online gaming every other night for about 2 months at a time. Family life for each of us demands it, but during this Coronavirus Quarantine, it sure would help!

Stay Home – Stay Safe.

Rick