Lamar Jackson is the player we need in EA Sports College Football

When EA Sports released their last college football video game- NCAA Football 14 – in 2013, the beloved franchise was firing on all cylinders with every FBS team and former college legend likenesses included within the game. When it all came to a halt, we missed out on gamebreaking players like Louisville alum Lamar Jackson and his big inclusion and possible opportunity of cover athlete.

This is the opportunity that Louisville fans were all robbed of in Jackson’s golden years as a Cardinal. In the game, he would have likely been one of the highest rated players and as insanely overpowered as Michael Vick in EA’s “Madden 2004” when Vick was the most dreaded player you could ever come across playing against.

The original franchise ended back in 2009, former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon filed a lawsuit against the NCAA over his likeness being used in the NCAA Basketball 09 video game. In short, after a multi-year battle, the NCAA and EA Sports cut ties from one another. That ultimately led to the NCAA Football  franchise coming to a screeching end.

The franchise is back, baby (kinda)!

On Tuesday morning, EA Sports tweeted out a big-time teaser for a re-booted form of the franchise called EA Sports College Football.

For those who played the game religiously up until 2013 when the title was forced to end, you probably just teared up a little reading that. And if you already read it, you probably just did so again as waterworks poured into your lower eyelids.

This is something that fans of the game have been clamoring about for eight years. Now, it will be a reality sometime in the future. When? We really have no idea. But it will be fun to see what details are released about the game in the coming months.

You’ll notice a name change that purposely does not include the brand that is the NCAA. With the name not attached, this means that there will likely be no player likenesses included in the game for the time being.

Currently, there is some movement towards “student-athletes” being able to profit off of their own likeness (NIL). This would possibly allow EA to use images, jersey numbers, and the like of college’s most beloved stars.

Lamar Jackson would be a perfect cover athlete

The NCAA Football games completely missed out on the entire Lamar Jackson era in college football. Of course, the former Louisville Cardinal was one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in the history of college football so putting him on the cover of a future game seems to be a real possibility.

He won the Heisman Trophy in 2016 and would be the perfect representative for the newest version of the game. Unless there is some big changes to the game, Jackson’s likeness should be able to be used in the game itself which would mean they could use his image within the game because he is not a current NCAA athlete.

Jackson would have insane speed and would likely be the best player in the game from day one if they were to insert him into the reboot franchise.

Seeing him in a Louisville uniform once again is the development that we all know we need. Who knows how they would implement him. He just needs to be in it in some form or fashion. We were all robbed of the opportunity to abuse his skills in NCAA Football 18  that never was.

Do the right thing. Put Lamar Jackson in EA Sports College Football and allow us to finally relive our nostalgia.