Sports video games, they may be the bargain . bin fodder of the gaming industry with their annual inclusions, but if you’re prepared to , pay full whack for a current year edition, you can control your favourite millionaire . in their own preferential coliseum. However, sometimes even offering your , seasonal tribute to the EA gods doesn’t guarantee the game you buy will feature all , your sporting messiahs. Normally because, as we’ll see; they are dreadful human beings! So, this episode we take a look at these Omitted Olympians, these absent athletes, and these , cancelled competitors. As I say… But, Hello you! I’m Guru Larry and I welcome you to Fact Hunt:. Cancelled Sports Stars in Video Games. Most of the sports-stars in this video are here because they did something awful, and to avoid setting off the YouTube content alarm, you might hear some unusual wordplay from me today. But that’s not the only unusual , thing; because the first game on the list is NCAA Football 14 from EA Sports.. Unusual because one: It’s not actually football! Two: It’s part of a series of EA Sports games that aren’t release outside of America, And Three: All the players are actually College , students! This is like EA doing a separate FIFA release for the under 21’s game. It’s just, weird! What’s also weird is how high the second hand prices for this game are. Seeing an . EA Sports game fetching this much is stranger than seeing a bargain bin NOT . filled with copies of FIFA and Madden! The crazy price is due to this being the last game in the series and nothing with player Aaron Hernandez who was taken , out of the game just before release. Hernandez was a gifted player who was on a $40 million contract, however, EA swiftly removed him from the game once he was found guilty of taking another man’s life. I can’t really go into the gritty details here because… YouTube; however Netflix did in their full length documentary: “The Mind of Aaron , Hernandez”, so if you want to know what he did to get his first degree sentence and his life in . prison punishment; Netflix has you covered there. Now, this may shock you, but the world of steroid using man-slabs, whom beat each other up for the amusement of onlookers, has . had its fair share of questionable competitors. Over the years the WWE has gone through its back . catalogue and removed stuff which wouldn’t go down in the same way today, and a similar cut . had to be made to WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2008. Wrestlers being unselectable and being buried in . the games code is not unusual. However, The 2006 version of Smackdown VS Raw has a surprising , number of characters tucked away in the code; normally because they leave mad . Vince McMahon’s squared Circle Empire while the game is still in development.

However, the release of Smackdown VS Raw 2008 actually had to be delayed so they could remove Chris “The Crippler” Benoit at the very last minute. Obviously he was planned to be in the . game, just like he had been in prior releases, However, after the tragic news that Chris . had stolen the life of his son and wife, and then himself; the WWE wanted all traces of Benoit . erased from the game, the TV show and its website. Does make you think how the WWE would , handle such a situation if it were to happen today in the current game. Would they , just patch out a character from the game and then have a bunch of angry gamers furious that content was being removed they had paid for? Personally I’m still furious THQ cancelled the WWE . WrestleFest remake for PS3, especially since the advert said it was “Out Now”.. -Clip- It can’t be cancelled AND “out now” at the same time! How does that even happen?! FIFA International Soccer; it’s been the number one football game series ever since Konami managed to completely arse up the once . great Pro Evo. Especially now since they’ve totally soiled their trousers and mangled the . whole thing up into the mess that is E-Football! So FIFA is now the de facto king of Football , games by virtue of there being zero competition; well, unless you count the criminally . underrated Captain Tsubasa from 2020. Nonetheless, with FIFA being the only game in town, it’s a big deal to be included in the games line up., However, someone who WASN’T included in the 2022 iteration was Manchester . United player, Mason Greenwood. On the 22nd of January 2022, Greenwood . was arrested on suspicion of what you see on screen now. With a court date set . for November 2023. Upon hearing the news, EA Sports immediately patched him out of the game., A year passed, and another FIFA was released, sans Greenwood again. However, on the 2nd of . February 2023, all charges against Mason were dropped. When asked if Greenwood would now be patched back into FIFA 2023, EA refused to do so. Now, you might be wondering if EA has some , sort of grudge against Greenwood for refusing to re-add him. But, the answer might be in the fact the charges were dropped, on account on the withdrawal of key witnesses. Greenwood wasn’t . actually found innocent of the accusations. Mason Greenwood is still suspended from , playing with his club, Manchester United who announced they would proceed with their own . investigation into his future with the club, But, whatever their findings. . There’s a good chance we won’t be seeing him in EA’s stupidly , renamed FIFA 24, EA Sports FC. Next up is a rather a curious case of a sports , star pretty much being removed from the game they were in. I say “pretty much” because unlike the ,

previous titles, it’s not quite as cut and dry. Now, the Madden NFL series needs absolutely . no introduction, it’s pretty much the posterboy for sports video games itself.. Players of the game can range from the much loved Tom Brady who loves retiring from the game just as much as he loves playing it, all the way down to the star of this section; Kareem Hunt. Hunt, can be described with a word that rhyme with his name, when he was caught on video kicking . and shoving a woman. This caused the team he was playing for to get rid of him immediately, with EA wanting to do the same in Madden NFL 19. The problem Electronic Arts ran into however, , was that Hunt was part of their ultimate team card collection feature, so just ripping him out , the game would ruin a lot of players ultimate team builds. So, instead EA left him in the game, but just swapped out his photo and name and an unnamed generic player with the same stats!, I’d love to tell you that this generic player is still in the game, but no, Kareem has his . spot again. Did he face any sort of punishment or discipline? No! He just signed for a new team and everyone forgot this ever happened! And now I don’t have to end with a joke because EA and the NFL have done it for me! Thanks guys! Now, to the casual normie, you can usually get , away with removing certain players in games, and they won’t even notice half the time, however, when it’s actually the guy on the bloomin’ box itself, then, you’re . probably going to have some trouble. Christiano Ronaldo, as seen here in all , his bizarrely elongated torso glory, (show FIFA 19 box) is quite possibly one of the , most recognisable faces in football today, however back in 2018, people started noticing EA quietly , removing his mug from all their digital stores, just replacing him with… nothing in thumbnails., Why? Well, at the time news reports and allegations began to surface of what you see . on screen, which allegedly altercated in a Las Vegas hotel room sometime in 2009. EA apparently also removed him because of tax evasion allegations too, which would have probably made it the most pathetic reasons to ever be booted off a game., Hoewever, Luckily for him, Ronaldo managed to slip himself into a future FIFA after deciding to be transferred to a nation that’s… lets say, a little more “forgiving” to his choices in life, by joining the Saudi Arabia team Al-Nassr. But, joining such a lesser skilled , team on the world’s stage, meant his in-game stats are now considerably nerfed! A not quite fitting punishment! Subtitles provided by “Guru Larry” Bundy Jr (Please say Hi in the comments if these were of any help ^_^),

Sports Stars BANNED and REMOVED from Video Games | Fact Hunt | Larry Bundy Jr