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Bill Belichick has maintained his long-standing stance against his name, image, and likeness being used in video games.
According to The Athletic, the upcoming EA Sports College Football 26 game will not include the former Patriots coach, who for years was replaced by a fictional character in the Madden franchise or a generic NE coach.
Along with a number of other well-known college football coaches, Belichick, who is currently the head coach of the University of North Carolina, has chosen not to play in the game.
Mario Cristobal of Miami and Deion Sanders of Colorado are two more coaches that will not be playable in the most recent iteration.
According to On3, Hector Luna and Kirk Patrick have taken the places of Belichick and Sanders in the game.
Belichick did not play in Madden for a large portion of his 24-year career with the Patriots because he was not an NFL Coaches Association member.
As anticipated, there were no Bill Belichick nor Deion Sanders among the actual coaches in #CFB26.Madden wasn’t done by Belichick either.tweet.com/GPkl3lcX87
The NFL Coaches Association and Madden creator EA Sports have a licensing deal that permits coaches’ likenesses to feature in the game. EA Sports also produces the CFB 26 game. Although Belichick was featured in Madden 2002, it has been at least twenty years since he last made an appearance in a game.
Given his Prime Time character and regular appearances in the Madden games both during his playing days and as a legendary player in later editions, Sanders’ absence is more unexpected than Belichick’s.
Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, one of the three cover athletes for the CFB game last year, was coached by Sanders at Jackson State and Colorado.
Belichick is preparing for his debut as head coach of a collegiate football team. Later this month, the Tar Heels will host ACC Media Days. On September 1, they will play their season opener at Chapel Hill versus TCU.
Even though UNC and Boston College are in the same conference, UNC will not visit Chestnut Hill in the regular season.
Boston.com’s Khari Thompson reports on professional sports. Khari worked as a college football reporter for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, prior to joining the team in 2022.
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