Madden 22 ratings are the hot topic this week, and almost every player insists each year that they deserved a higher rating in the game.
However, one NFL star actually used his high school track records to convince a Madden 22 Ratings Adjuster to improve his Speed rating.
Madden 22: NFL player got his ratings improved
With Madden 22 Ratings Reveal Week dominating the conversation on ESPN, the program brought EA Sports' own Clint Oldenburg on to discuss Madden ratings during SportsCenter.
While discussing the process of analyzing film to decide on ratings each year, Oldenburg explained that it is possible for players to dispute their rating.
However, it looks like actually making that dispute stick will require some compelling evidence, as it did for one NFL player in the past.
Oldenburg revealed during his appearance that longtime NFL kicker Graham Gano actually came to them and convinced EA Sports to raise his Speed rating in Madden.
Oldenburg explained that Gano sent them footage of his high school track meets to backup why his Speed rating deserved to be higher in the game.
While speed isn't exactly a major factor for NFL kickers, it was an argument that Graham Gano knew he could back up.
Graham Gano discussed his track prowess
Graham Gano currently plays for the New York Giants, but he spent the majority of his career with the Carolina Panthers between 2012 and 2019.
During that time, Gano did an interview with Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer, and Fowler asked Gano directly about the truth of his Wikipedia entry's mention of high school track records.
"Oh, it's true," Gano insisted. "Charles Johnson just came up to me in the locker room right before the interview and said, ‘What’s up with Madden? Your speed is the same as mine (on the video game).’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s wrong. I should be a lot faster than you.’"
"Charles looked at me like I was crazy, but I started telling him my track stats," Gano continued. "I told him I could go out there and run a 4.5 40 right now. Of course, everybody gets defensive over that. So Ryan Kalil looked up my high school times online and said, ‘Yeah, he’s right.’"
As his Wikipedia entry still reaffirms today, Graham Gano won three state titles in track at the 2005 FHSAA 3A District 1, and he did so with a 10.55 second time in the 100-meter dash, 21.70 second time in the 200-meter dash, and 48.00 second time in the 400-meter dash.
Two of those, his 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash times, still stand today as school records, though his 400-meter dash record is listed on MileSplit FL as having been broken in 2019, despite the time listed being just over half a second slower than his 48.00 second record which is still shown in the results from 2005.
Gano's fight to get his ratings corrected actually began years ago, as one Fox Sports piece from as early as 2015 confirms, where Gano was contesting both his Speed and Strength ratings.
While we don't know when Graham Gano's Madden 22 rating will be revealed, as kickers aren't mentioned in this week's schedule, we are starting to get several ratings already.