John Madden may have retired from the public limelight this week, but it seems that isn’t taking any targets off his back. Fresh from their $28 million victory against the NFL Players Association, a contingent of retired NFL players now appear ready to sue John Madden and Electronic Arts over what they argue is the use of their likenesses in the Madden NFL series without compensation.
In a new post on the blog of former NFL player Dave Pears (via GamePolitics), NFL retiree Bernie Parrish makes his and other retirees’ intentions abundantly clear: “The retired NFL players who were used in Madden EA video games will be suing Madden and EA for using us in those games without compensating us,” Parrish writes. He also alleges that “Madden’s agent Sandy Montag boasts he and Madden collected over $100,000,000 in royalties while paying the retired NFL players used in those games absolutely nothing. Madden knows that the ugly truthful litigation is coming and is probably factoring that into his retirement.”
Parrish also explains in the post that the players “probably will not use…the attorneys who obtained a $28.1 million verdict for us against the NFLPA for ’scrambling retired players identities’ in those video games.” He further states that, “In my opinion, Madden should have been included in our licensing suit against the NFLPA and so should EA.”