Each year, EA holds the "Madden Bowl" on Super Bowl weekend. It's an eSport competition played on the latest installment of Madden and the winner walks away with a good chunk of change in their pockets. After his win on February 3rd, Chris McFarland was fined $3,000 by EA for his use of racist comments on Twitter. Many of his tweets in question were from several years ago, but McFarland's more recent tweets were still against EA's Code of Conduct.
“These posts violated our Code of Conduct and don’t represent the values of our organization,” said EA's competitive gaming commissioner for Madden Matt Marcou. EA even met with McFarland to warn him that his tweets would not be tolerated if he continued to post him. McFarland has deleted many of the tweets since but they were quite vulgar and deemed offensive by EA.
“It’s important that we clearly set conduct boundaries to guide our competitors and ensure that promotional and financial opportunities for all parties continue to grow,” said Marcou. Marcou also stated the money from McFarland's fine would go towards “programs to help our players prepare for the exposure that comes with being a top-level gaming competitor.”
McFarland had won $75,000 from the Madden Bowl so $3,000 isn't a huge cut, but it's enough to show how serious EA is about maintaining a healthy environment. In addition to this, EA also subtracted 100 points from his Madden Championship Series record where he previously had 1,000 points. Chris McFarland has accepted the punishment and stated that he plans to leave his former, offensive self in the past going forward.
“[A lot] of what I said was outta passion and emotion at the time,” he said speaking to Polygon. “I understand everything that I did wrong and accept responsibility for my words.”
“Honestly the fine just shows how much this game is growing. It’s not just for the small group of pro Madden players, it’s for the entire country. We as players need to understand that we not only represent ourselves but the growth of the game. […] EA holding us more responsible for our actions is a reflection on how big they want Madden to grow, at the end of the day that’s what we all want.
“I have accepted the consequences and plan on representing both myself and the game of Madden positively.”
McFarland previously used the N-word and a bunch of racist, derogatory terms that we can't repeat here. It's good to see the McFarland accepts his consequences and understands the seriousness of being in the public eye. Chris McFarland will still play in the final tournament scheduled on May 31st.
[Polygon]
