After Damar Hamlin's Collapse, Madden NFL 23 Eliminated The Fake CPR Celebration

In the fantasy game Madden NFL 23, you can take pleasure in a hyped-up simulation of NFL football with crazy plays and improbable results. However, the game's publisher, EA, will soon add a dose of reality by eliminating a touchdown celebration that has a terrible correlation to recently tragic occurrences. On January 2, during a Monday Night Football game, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24, fainted shortly after he tackled a Cincinnati Bengals player. Hamlin was treated by neighborhood and league medical personnel for 19 minutes, during which time he required an AED to restart his heartbeat after going into cardiac arrest. Later, medical professionals hypothesized that Hamlin might have experienced commotio cordis, a condition in which a hit to the chest disrupts the electrical signals of the heart, resulting in an erratic heartbeat that prevents blood supply to the brain. Later, Hamlin was transferred to a hospital in Cincinnati while being carried on a stretcher and given oxygen. Before the NFL decided to permanently halt the game, it was suspended for more than an hour. Later, the entire thing was canceled. On Monday, Hamlin was discharged from an intensive care unit in Cincinnati and has since traveled back to Buffalo. Photo Credit: Gamestop The ability to start a team celebration in Madden NFL 23 that involves a scoring player lying on the ground as teammates act out CPR and a defibrillator application is somewhat disconcerting in light of the foregoing. Also Read: Is Google to Become the NFL Sunday Ticket's New Home? According to EA Sports' statement to CBS Sports, the celebration will be eliminated "through an update in the coming days." The last three yearly releases of Madden have included the holiday. Since players have been seen doing teammate CPR last Sunday and providing CPR to a ball in 2017 as a way to celebrate touchdowns, Madden did not originate this celebration technique (for which the player apologized). Photo Credit: Democrat And Chronicle Even before Hamlin's collapse, it was questionable whether a full-on, three-person fake resuscitation celebration would be permitted in an NFL game. In an effort to curtail celebrations, the league instituted a 15-yard automatic penalty in 2006 against any club whose player engaged in a "excessive celebration" involving props, the goalpost, or the ball. In 2017, it altered direction to permit football props, on-the-ground celebrations, and group actions while still maintaining the ban on goalposts. Celebrations that are "offensive" and "prolonged," or those that are directed towards the rival team, are still punished.