ESPN Unveils In-Depth Series on EA SPORTS Madden NFL Player Ratings

Following the conclusion of the NFL Combine, ESPN's FiveThirtyEight today published "How Madden Ratings Are Made: The Secret Process That Turns NFL Players Into Digital Gods" - the first of a three-part series featuring the most in-depth look to date at EA SPORTS Madden NFL player ratings, a score highly regarded by the league, its players and Madden NFL gamers.

In the next three days, lead lifestyle writer Walt Hickey and senior sportswriter Neil Painewill take readers behind the scenes of the player rating process and explore in detail how an average person would rank among other rookie players in the league.

The first chapter from Paine, now live on FiveThirtyEight, gives readers a glimpse at Madden's headquarters and the thrilling process of assessing players, including interviews with creators and official Madden ratings czar Donny Moore. Interactive and graphic features include:

An interactive tool giving readers the ability to generate their own Madden NFL player rating
Detailed charts including the history of sports video games, the formula behind Madden's ratings, case studies of players such as Odell Beckham Jr., Peyton Manning, Brandon Marshall, Michael Vick and Reggie Wayne

The second part - titled "The Walk-On: How Madden Helped A Schlub Like Me Make It Into The NFL" - answers the question every Average Joe asks ("Could I compete with the pros?") and what every football player and gamer asks ("How accurate of a simulation is Madden NFL to the real thing?") Part Two showcases several aspects of the simulation process with both self-deprecating humor and a hard dose of reality, including:

The making of Hickey's own avatar
Evaluation of ratings based on a series of combine drills, with behind-the-scenes images and videos of Hickey testing his 40-yard dash and 10-yard split, trucking, agility, lunging jumps, passing, receiving, kicking, punting and more
How Hickey's results stack up against those of well-known NFL rookies

The final chapter, to be published on Feb. 26, is a video recapping the entire series.

FiveThirtyEight, which launched as an ESPN entity in 2014, is a data journalism organization delivering compelling stories across the verticals of politics, economy, science, life and sports. The site, founded by award-winning author and statistician Nate Silver, first gained national attention during the 2008 presidential election, when it correctly predicted the results of the presidential election in 49 of 50 states, along with all 35 U.S. Senate races. Since its debut at ESPN, FiveThirtyEight has built a team with a broad set of skills and experiences in order to apply statistical analysis, data visualization, and data-literate reporting to topics in the news and in everyday life.

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