Madden 23’s CPR celebration to be removed following Damar Hamlin’s collapse

EA reacts to Buffalo Bills player’s incident

Marco Wutz | Jan 11, 2023

Madden 23’s CPR celebration to be removed following Damar Hamlin’s collapse /

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Football pro Damar Hamlin, a Safety for the Buffalo Bills, went into cardiac arrest during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals on January 2, 2023. Medical personnel had to perform CPR on the 24-year-old to stabilize him in order to safely transport him to a hospital. Hamlin has by now been transported from Cincinnati to Buffalo, where he’s recovering from the incident.

Following these events, EA Sports has made the decision to remove a touchdown celebration from Madden NFL 23 that mimics the performance of CPR. One player lays down on the ground, while another fakes the procedure on him.

EA confirmed the decision to remove this celebration towards CBS Sports, saying an update in the coming days would do so.

The CPR celebration is not uncommon in the NFL. Even after Hamlin’s collapse, players of the Pittsburgh Steelers used the move on January 8, 2023, in a game against the Cleveland Browns.

EA Sports recently faced harsh criticism from players of Madden 23 after it had lost a large number of game saves for good, forcing many to restart their franchise mode careers.

Published Jan 11, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg