When publisher Electronic Arts updates Madden NFL 15 next week, the company will remove Ray Rice from the game.
EA Sports is cutting the former Baltimore Ravens running back from its hugely popular game (via Polygon) following the leak of a video that shows Rice punching his then-fiancée in the face. The Ravens terminated Rice’s contract yesterday, and the National Football League followed that up by suspending the running back indefinitely. EA Sports regularly updates the Madden roster to reflect who is actually playing, and the Rice incident is in line with how EA has handled situations like this in the past.
Of course, removing the ex-Raven isn’t like flipping a switch. The patch will ensure that he doesn’t appear in any newly created games or career modes, but anyone who starts a Madden career before this coming update will use a roster that EA has not revised. Additionally, the developer will figure out how to deal with Rice in Madden Ultimate Team, which is a mode that enables gamers to collect players like a deck-building card game.
This isn’t the first time EA Sports has cut players from the Madden roster due to legal or moral reasons. In 2013, the publisher cut former New England Patriots tight end and alleged murderer Aaron Hernandez from Madden NFL 25.