Among certain circles, the annual release of the new version of John Madden's video game is treated as a national holiday.
But Seahawks wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh won't be celebrating when Madden '10 comes out next month, telling a national radio host he'll be boycotting the game in protest over his player rating.
"Man, they don't get my rating right," Houshmandzadeh said while appearing on Colin Cowherd's ESPN Radio show Monday. "I just looked at the game and they have this wrong and that wrong. And I understand I averaged 10 yards a catch (in 2008), but it's the offense, man, not me."
For the record, Houshmandzadeh has a rating of 91, making him the sixth-highest ranked wide receiver in the NFC, behind only Larry Fitzgerald (99), Steve Smith (97), Anquan Boldin (94), Roddy White (93) and Calvin Johnson (92). Also for the record, Houshmandzadeh had 904 receiving yards and four touchdowns in 2008. Just for comparison purposes, all five NFC wideouts ranked ahead of him put up better numbers; each had at least 1,038 receiving yards and scored at least six TDs.
But according to Houshmandzadeh, those numbers are lying. And he'll be giving the PlayStation a rest until the truth is told.
"I'm not playing Madden no more, until they get my rating right," Houshmandzadeh said. "It might be a little pouting, too. It might be. But, you know, I used to be the best in the world at Madden, so I'm going to miss not playing it. But until they do me right, I'm not playing it no more."