EA Sports, the creators of the Madden NFL video game football franchise, had a little social media fun at the expense of kicker Blair Walsh and the heartbroken Minnesota Vikings on Thursday.
As you likely know, Walsh hooked his game-winning field goal from 27 yards out wide left during last Sunday’s 10-9 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Wild Card Round.
Just four days after, the gaming studio recreated Walsh’s disastrous miss using Madden NFL 16, and then shared the pre-snap shot of the play over the company’s official Instagram page:
“Throwback Thursday” has never been this cruel. The picture shows a digital Walsh lining up his kick far to the left, in a similar path as his real-life kick eventually traveled.
But this isn’t the first time EA Sports has trolled a painful late game moment. After Russell Wilson threw an interception near the goal line to lose the Super Bowl last February, EA Sports hit the Seattle Seahawks official Twitter account with another perfect zinger.
The painful lesson here: Cost your team a playoff win by screwing up, and you’re at the mercy of the world’s most popular sports video game studio. Walsh wasn’t the first, and, hopefully, he isn’t the last.
