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Videogames Impacting the NFL
by Bill Stark | posted at 2010-01-26 17:49:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, John Madden, Football, NFL, Denver Broncos
An article from Wired highlights how Denver Broncos player Brandon Stokley manages to score a game winning touchdown, securing the deal by topping it off with a play copied from hours spent playing Madden. By cutting at a 90 degree angle and staying out of the end zone for as long as possible, Stokley managed to shave time off the clock to ensure his opponents wouldn't have time to make up the score and come back to win.
It's a fascinating play (the type of thing I love), but the article focuses on how a generation of professional athletes are having their play informed by being avid video gamers. The article draws a stunning conclusion: could video games be informing the professional athletes in addition to their careers as high school, college, and other leagues?
If the author had bothered to ask, Magic players would have been happy to inform our pros have been copying plays from the video game version of Magic, Magic Online, and using them at the highest levels of competition. Concluding that others in professional sports would do so shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
Read the full article from Wired.com here.
(Thanks to Ryan Dhuse on Facebook for the tip on this article.)
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Bill Stark is the founder and editor-in-chief of TheStarkingtonPost.com. He began playing Magic in 1995 after being introduced to the game by his brother. Since then he has competed at all levels of play including the JSS, Grand Prix, Nationals, and Pro Tour. In addition to his career as a pro, Bill began writing about the game early on for TheDojo.com, the first website dedicated to Magic. Since then he has written and edited for nearly every major Magic website on the web. In 2007 he began work as an official coverage reporter for Wizards of the Coast, flying to Grand Prixs, Nationals, and World Championships to record the events happening at each. He was also hired for six months as an R&D intern at Wizards where he worked on the redesign for DailyMTG.com as well as helping to develop multiple Magic sets. After leaving Wizards, he started TheStarkingtonPost.com to utilize his many contacts in the industry to provide a better information solution for fans of TCGs, gaming, and Magic: The Gathering.