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Josh Atwood’s eligibility lasted quite a while.
The UMass senior halfback from Natick is entering his fifth season as a high school football player. He was able to be a two-time freshman after appearing in 4 games as a nose in the 2020 COVID season and receiving an extra year because of it.
This turned out to be fortuitous. Atwood held out long enough to appear in the first American football video game released in a decade. EA Sports College Football 2five arrived on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles on Tuesday for those who purchased the Deluxe Edition and, more importantly, for players of the game. The popular edition was suspended on Thursday.
The series, published from 1993 to 2014, went on hiatus due to legal disputes between the publisher, the NCAA and school athletes over the use of images of school athletes in video games without compensating them, which would have been illegal under previous rules. Training
Now, players can get cash for their name, image, and likeness, which paved the way for EA (Electronic Arts) to start releasing the most recent edition in 2021.
“I don’t forget to bet on NCAA 13. It was the last one I played, and then I don’t forget to waste that game and be so unhappy that I couldn’t get it back. We’ve talked about it for years. The fact that we’re there is pretty good,” Atwood said. “Honestly, I didn’t think this was going to happen until I left here. “
Atwood is one of the few notable former MetroWest football players to appear in the game. He and former Milford star Dom Schofield play for a Minutemen show that showed the game’s countdown on the McGuirk Alumni Stadium video board. Atwood played the first game of NCAA Football 25 on this screen, teaming up with defensive end Tyson Watson against defensive lineman Jaylen Hudson and protector Tyler Rudolph.
Moving on: Former UMass football quarterback Brady Olson of Milford transferred to CCSU
“Going through the list for the first time and seeing what your score is and how guys argue about their scores, their speed and their strength, it’s a fun thing we do anyway, but now that there’s a resource where they can guess and play. numbers,” Atwood said. It’s fun to play and play with the numbers, like ‘oh Josh, you have to block it’ or ‘oh, you have to catch this ball. ‘we can have.
Schofield knew little about the franchise before his return. He then sent her a screenshot of him in-game.
“It wasn’t an accurate photo of me, but in a way it looked like it. I was impressed. I had never noticed things like this before. I thought it was a “It’s a dream come true for me to see myself. “in a video game,” Schofield said.
Michigan midfielder Greg Crippen, who played top-tier football at IMG Academy but is from Northborough, brought his Xbox 360 to Ann Arbor when he first arrived to play the previous edition.
“Now that it’s available, it’s a lot of fun to play. It’s also a bit strange to see yourself in the game,” he said.
Crippen, who won a national championship last year, remembers betting against a friend who was from Michigan and firing the quarterback. He was frustrated that his gaming avatar allowed pressure.
“It’s a little personal,” he said.
Dover-Sherborn graduate Nicholas Rinaldi saw himself at the games. All he had to do was create himself first. All that’s left for the Vanderbilt linebacker is to open the Commodores list and scroll down.
“It was pretty cool for me, pretty surreal to just be able to float above me and above me,” Rinaldi said.
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It’s also a chance for friends to feel alone. People contacted West Virginia guard Sullivan Weidman of Franklin to tell him they were moving him to the back line or putting him at quarterback.
“I’ve noticed that some guys build offensive lineman positions and don’t look too sexy, so I hope they proved me right,” Weidman said.
Whether it’s totally true or not, they’re in the game, providing an exclusive set of bragging rights for Matt Ragan of Westborough at Boston College. His older brother, Sean, played for the Eagles from 2016 to 2019 and never played in a game they shared growing up.
“He took me to them, and when that was over, we moved on to Madden,” Matt Ragan said. “We joke all the time, we’re very competitive. There will be jokes. Probably now and for a long time. “
Players had to agree to have their symbol used in the game. Everyone who did so won $600 and a copy of the deluxe edition of the game. This gives them enough time before they want to prepare for the real high school football season.
“Until camp starts, we’ll all be playing NCAA football during whatever free time we have,” Weidman said.
Contact Kyle Grabowski at kgrabowski@gannett. com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @kylegrbwsk.
This article gave the impression in MetroWest Daily News: local players enjoy the ‘surreal’ experience of College Football 25.