Madden 20's NFL 100 Eric Dickerson Trucked His Way Into Legend

Great video game athletes often overshadow the titles they appeared in. It's impossible to think of Tecmo Bowl without thinking of Bo Jackson, or NBA Jam without thinking of Shaq. NFL 100 Eric Dickerson etched his name in the history books in Madden 20, becoming both the best and worst thing about the game.

It took a perfect storm of conditions for Dickerson to achieve his final form. After Madden 19 made running more difficult than it needed to be, the 2019 offering swung the balance too far in the other direction. I started routinely racking up 200-yard games in Ultimate Team with Denver Broncos journeyman runner Phliip Lindsay. I knew then that when the real running backs showed up, this game would break.

Madden 20 also introduced the controversial X-Factor feature. These players gained special abilities after reaching certain statistical thresholds. One of the few things keeping them in check was the need to get an interception, a certain amount of yards, or some other big play.

Then the NFL 100 program hit MUT. The league celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2019, just the sort of thing Madden loves to promote in its card-collecting mode. EA felt compelled to give them an extra level of power. Cards including Dickerson began the game with their powerful X-Factor abilities already active.

The legendary rusher came equipped with the Freight Train ability, which automatically breaks the first tackle attempt by an opposing player. Stacking this with the attributes a man who once rushed for 2,185 yards in a season already had in the game, a serious problem emerged.

The good thing about games in an always online era is that problematic cards can be fixed. EA nerfed Dickerson, a change that took him from the best running back in Madden history to merely the best running back in that year's game. Sadly, many had already called it quits for the season after his ankle-breaking antics.

I remember one game I had passed the 200-yard mark in the first half. My frustrated opponent ranted that he didn't even know who Eric Dickerson was.

"This dude must be the greatest running back who ever lived," he yelled into his microphone. "I need to go look up some YouTube footage of this man!"

One of the reasons I do this job is to educate the younger generation about great games and players, so I agreed that he absolutely should look up that footage. I didn't mean to come off as condescending, but I'm not sure there was a way to do that while wielding Madden 20's primary weapon. He offered up one of the millions of rage quits in the Dickerson era.

EA turned off Madden 20's servers in April, and a lot of players logged back in to enjoy one of the most broken cards in MUT history one last time. Madden respects its history and often releases MUT cards that commemorate great players in the game series. Dickerson visits annually, but he will hopefully never be quite that powerful again.

Still, even while we're cursing EA's existence and lamenting Madden's glitches, the shared experience ends up being fun. I think here it's appropriate to borrow from the classic movie Troy. If they ever tell my story, tell them I ran with giants. Let them say I lived in the time of Madden 20. Let them say I lived in the time of NFL 100 Eric Dickerson.