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From Gamasutra:

 Riccitiello: EA Needs To Ensure 2K's All-Pro Football Is 'Not Repeatable'

  During the same Electronic Arts shareholder call which produced confirmation of The Godfather 2honest remarks on the Wii, EA's CEO John Riccitiello commented pointedly on the rivalry between the Peter Moore-helmed EA Sports and 2K Sports.

Specifically, when asked what competitors Electronic Arts was particularly looking to - a request Riccitiello echoed as which companies "keep them awake at night", one of the firms singled out by the EA exec was Take-Two.

Take-Two's 2K Sports division has just released All-Pro Football 2K8, the first football title from the company after Electronic Arts purchased exclusive rights to NFL teams and current players in 2005.

and All-Pro Football 2K8 has attempted to make itself attractive, despite the lack of license, by negotiating many individual deals with former NFL stars such as Troy Aikman and Jerry Rice, and Riccitiello commented of the move:

"When you've got a competitor like Take-Two on the sports side, and they launch a football title using some of the industry legends, you want to make sure that ends up being a blip and is not repeatable, because we like to defend our franchises aggressively."

It's unclear how Riccitiello intends to stop further titles in 2K's series - the implication may be that he just intends EA Sports football titles to be so relatively successful, compared to All-Pro Football 2K8, that it will not be profitable for Take-Two to produce the game in subsequent years. POSTED: 07.09AM PST, 07/27/07 - Simon Carless

CS.net's Take:
Do it on the field, EA.  Signing legends they don't intend to use- or use well- reeks of the same "buy the business, instead of earning it" BS that has darkened the image of a company that was once a straight up "we'll put our best game out" organization back when the legendary Trip Hawkins was CEO.  John Riccitiello is no trip Hawkins.  Not even close.  2K's football franchise exists because EA has been pushing basically "bubble-gum football for pre-teens" to the masses for the past several years. (At least up until this point- I cannot yet comment on Madden 08 as I have not seen it, to be fair.) 

EA has bigger fish of its own to fry than to harrass T2.  How about online franchises in the football games? How about playbooks beyond the uber-retreaded Madden 2002 ones spammed to both the college and pro product?  How about REALISTIC defensive AI instead of Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon kung-fu matinee' defenders that can intercept a ball with their backs to it?  Heck, how about a next-gen EA game that plays competently online...