In light of the recent events surrounding former New England Patriots' Tight End Aaron Hernandez, EA Sports has decided to remove the troubled athlete from its two signature football titles — NCAA Football 14 and Madden NFL 25.
Although Hernandez is now a few years removed from college football, he does make an appearance in the game's Ultimate Team mode, which allows players to add former college athletes from real-life to their "fantasy" team by completing challenges in the Skills Trainer mode. The Hernandez player card was rewarded for an achievement in NCAA Football 14's Nike Skills Trainer, but when a picture of the unlock started making the rounds on Twitter, EA quickly rectified the situation.
"We made a decision to remove Aaron Hernandez from Madden NFL 25 and NCAA Football 14," EA told us. "Because NCAA Football 14 was finalized prior to our decision, Hernandez' image still appears in the Nike Skills Trainer."
Although Hernandez is not in NCAA Football 14 anymore, his image still does appear in the game. Players who unlock that particular Nike Skills Trainer reward now receive an Alex Smith Ultimate Team player item instead. EA says the image of Hernandez will be removed via a Title Update "in the near future."
Police investigation into Hernandez's possible connection to the murder of Odin Lloyd began around June 18th, which likely didn't give EA much of a chance to remove the reward prior to the game's July 9th launch. The Patriots, meanwhile, released Hernandez immediately after his arrest on June 26th, so he wouldn't have shown up on the NFL roster anyway. There's a chance he could have appeared in the free agent pool had EA decided not to remove him from Madden NFL 25 entirely.
NCAA Football 14 is set to release tomorrow, July 9, while Madden NFL 25 will hit store shelves in late August.
