Utah, Madden Ratings Are Dealing With Big Inflation

Shower Thought - Monday, July 28

Audio Transcript

"Barstool's president Dave Portnoy is famous for giving pizza reviews.

He does one everyday. Cheese pizza. All over New York and all over the country. One bite everybody knows the rules.

And I like the reviews because he's not afraid to give a 6.3 score right in front of the owner of the pizza place. He has no fear.

The other thing I like is he doesn't give super high scores. The best pizza score he's given is like a 9.3. He's never given a 10 because a 10 shouldn't really be possible. Because once you give somebody a 10 what happens when something better comes out? You've got nowhere to go.

Madden Ratings Are Dealing With Inflation

This is how I feel about Madden ratings.

The first John Madden Football game came out in 1988. So it's been around for 37 years or so and in that time it's given 129 different players 99 ratings.

Which is the highest rating. Jason Sehorn got a 99 rating back in 1999. You're telling me cornerback play doesn't get any better than Jason Sehorn in 1999? That's as good as it can possibly get? What happens when Champ Bailey comes around in the 2000's? And Darrelle Revis? Well I guess they get 99s too. So there's no difference between Champ Bailey and Jason Sehorn?

This year Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson are 99s! They're as good as QB play can possibly get? They're as good as Peyton Manning in 2009? They're as good as Brady in 2007? They're not even the best quarterbacks in the league now. But they get a perfect score. It's too much. It's grade inflation. Give some A-minuses out for heaven's sake!"