logo
Revealed: Bill Belichick AND Deion Sanders both refused to be included in EA's new college football game

Revealed: Bill Belichick AND Deion Sanders both refused to be included in EA's new college football game

Daily Mail​6 days ago
EA Sports released the deluxe edition of 'College Football 26' on Monday, with arguably the two most prominent coaches in college football in terms of mainstream appeal, Bill Belichick and Deion Sanders, not part of the game.
This year's edition introduced coaches having their identities as part of game, not just the players with name, image, and likeness revenue sent their way.
North Carolina 's Belichick and Colorado's Sanders will now have stand-ins taking their spots at the helm of the Tar Heels and Buffaloes respectively by not opting in to the game.
The new Tar Heels coach is a man named Hector Luna, who has a B+ rating as a coach, while in Sanders' spot is a fake person named Kirk Patrick, whose rating is A+, per The Athletic.
Those revelations came out alongside the designs for coaches that opted to be part of the second edition of the revival series of EA Sports' college football cult classic game.
Some of those designs went viral, including an interesting haircut for Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy.
Belichick's absence was not a surprise, as he never chose to be part of the Madden NFL video game franchise when coaching the New England Patriots.
The three most notable college head coaches to opt into the game are Ohio State's Ryan Day, Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin, and Clemson's Dabo Swinney.
The most prominent head coach joining Sanders and Belichick not to be in the game is either Stanford's Frank Reich or UAB's Trent Dilfer, due to their time in the NFL.
Expectations for both coaches are high entering the 2025 season, especially for Belichick, as the Atlantic Coast Conference appears wide open.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Orkney 2025: highlights from the opening ceremony
Orkney 2025: highlights from the opening ceremony

ITV News

time28 minutes ago

  • ITV News

Orkney 2025: highlights from the opening ceremony

Watch ITV Channel's highlights from the Orkney 2025 opening ceremony. HRH The Princess Royal declared an official start to the 2025 Island Games in Orkney last night (12 July). The Games' opening ceremony saw athletes from across the Channel Islands join more than two thousand others from around the world - swelling the small Scottish island's population by more than 10 percent. They'll spend the next week representing Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark on an international sporting stage - fighting for victory against athletes from countries as far-flung as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Last night's ceremony was a celebration of sport, culture, and island life - featuring a procession by athletes through the centre of the island's town, performances by local schoolchildren, and highland pipe bands. The Games' iconic 'Water Ceremony' tradition also took place, with each team invited to blend together waters from their respective islands within a ceremonial structure. The event's host - television presenter Lorraine Kelly - said the atmosphere at the ceremony was "just electric". "I could really feel the anticipation in the air!", she said, adding "Orkney is my favourite place and I'm so looking forward to watching the Games over the next week". Today sees the start of competition in Badminton, Football, Lawn Bowls, Sailing, and Squash. The triathlon is also taking place.

Summer loving: how America fell head over heels for Love Island
Summer loving: how America fell head over heels for Love Island

The Guardian

time39 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Summer loving: how America fell head over heels for Love Island

On the surface, there wasn't anything particularly different about this season of Love Island USA. It's another hot idiot parade. The villa is the same, overly lit and filled with dumb neon signs, looking like it was exclusively decorated by Target (the contestants are still obliged to call it beautiful as they enter, leaving audiences wondering if they are told by producers to do so). There is the same introduction of personalities that at first seem complex and different, only for everyone to fall into a high school trance once they start vying to be chosen. There is the same suspension of any kind of reality for the most part, in which the contestants rarely discuss the real-world implications of their lives, such as their jobs and living situations. But this summer saw Love Island USA truly take off, breaking ratings records and storming social media (new viewers reportedly made up 39% of the season 7 audience). Peacock, the NBC-owned streamer, boasted that the show was the most talked about TV event of the season with 623m video views on TikTok. Yet in the UK, the original has been struggling, with ratings lows. Perhaps it's down to fatigue, with the show having been around almost twice as long overseas. At the same time the US equivalent has been boosted by an overall rise in interest for live event TV (the past year has also seen awards shows receive an uplift in viewers) and the past weeks have seen Love Island watch parties crop up in bars across the country. But why now? It has all of the same horny plot twists we expect, but this season somehow grew a heart. The antics are still as naughty, but the sexy singles of the villa are honest about what they want (at least until they start coupling up). And what they want is genuine intimacy fueled by emotional vulnerability and availability. People seem to be actually looking for real love, long-term commitment, seeking people with real partner potential, and even discussing having children in a deep way. Add on the complexity of one of the contestants Huda having a daughter, and the fearful way she navigates the topic, and you have people being real for once on a very unreal show. Part of the allure of this season is that gen Z has finally taken the torch of what millennials started (and I say that as a very exhausted millennial). These contestants are fluent in gen Z-speak. They say 'dead ass', 'type shit', 'be so for real', 'hits different', and 'tea' as if no one didn't ever know what those words meant. They are covered in tattoos and piercings, and no one bats an eye. These people grew up with social media, and it shows – and somehow, instead of being entirely off-putting, it's more relatable than the millennials who came before them, who were constantly angling for the camera's attention while overthinking how they were coming off in the public eye. There's an effortlessness of this new young generation who came of age so filmed by their own phone cameras that they don't seem as concerned with the production crew's POV, or even the fact that they're being watched. The ennui and cultural frustration of millennials is eclipsed by gen Z women who don't feel the need to go so high glam with their style, and men who are excited to talk about their feelings. It's a refreshing energy. It all translates into a collective self-awareness that while they could become famous just by being there, and especially by staying on as long as possible, showing any interest in that is off-putting and will get them kicked off and also disowned by the public. This is probably informed by watching online backlash against other reality dating show contestants in the last few years who were exposed for being there just for fame, but also feels like a generational shift. This generation is also far more mental-health aware, and watched as the early seasons of the UK show were tragically plagued by suicide and mental health crises, and it has helped to create islanders who avoid the pitfalls that they can trip into in approaching the game for fame or by being emotionally ugly (getting cliquey, being blatantly disloyal, trying to pull focus, being overtly manipulative). They have become smarter about how they come off on camera by not playing into it at all. Authenticity is king in this generation. No one is pretending to be smarter or hotter than they are. And they don't necessarily seem to be comparing themselves to one another, more just not wanting to feel rejected. It helps that the format of Love Island is almostreal-time, with just a 24-48 hour delay from filming to air. It reduces the noxious vibes of over-produced reality TV that everyone at this point knows is anything but real. This season has also seen some controversy with contestants being kicked off. Yulissa Escobar was axed unceremoniously in the first week after an old podcast episode resurfaced in which she had used the N-word. She apologized for the comment on her social media accounts, but also critiqued the online backlash against her as 'cancel culture'. Cierra Ortega left last week with narrator Ian Sterling saying she 'left the villa due to a personal situation', after two social media posts circulated in which she'd used a slur against people of Asian dissent. As opposed to Escobar, Ortega has apologized profusely, with her family even putting out a statement before she returned home about the harm they were afraid the mass, vocal backlash against their daughter could cause to her mental health. As the season comes to a close this weekend, producers were also reportedly upset with OG islander Huda, who is in the finale to potentially win the prize, for posting a TikTok lip-syncing to a Elijah The Boy's Over You, for a portion that includes the N-word. She will apparently not be kicked off ahead of the finale, but was pulled aside by producers and admonished and asked not to cause any more controversy for the brand or herself. The lack of self-awareness certainly has a downside for these gen Z'ers who have lived their youths sometimes regrettably too online. But at the same time, it's part of what stokes viewers. With the rise of shows like The Traitors, also reaching a record audience in the US, it seems people are wanting a return to a messier brand of reality TV. Where does the present-day Love Island obsession come from? Is it just wanting to get away from the crushing reality of the geopolitical climate? There's no longer a layer of disdain for young TV dummies grinding on each other just to get internet famous. Love Island isn't just a guilty pleasure or a hate watch anymore. Now we are rooting for them. We want them to win. We wish we could be them, or be there for them. When they say they're there for 'girls girls and soul connections', we believe them. A day after talking about how the show was a salve for our chaotic times with a friend, I saw a meme of the 2023 Barbenheimer summer box office moment, with an image of Margot Robbie's Barbie looking out over Barbieland next to an image of Cillian Murphy's Oppenheimer looking out over am atomic wasteland with the text overlay 'Watching Love Island while simultaneously watching WWIII start.' It's how we all feel, like a meme of the world wrapped into a person who just wants to live. The biggest appeal of Love Island has always been the quickness with which these people will couple up and catch feelings for each other after mere hours together, and then turn around and transmute that into the same thing with someone new whom they just met. There's something wildly delulu about it, but also kind of how we all want to be loved – for it to be instant. For someone to pick us. For someone not to want to take it too slow. For someone to make us feel easily chosen for the long haul. The bonding exists entirely in this neon, sexed up faux paradise where the pressures of the real world don't exist (what we all wish we could return to). It's a sleepaway camp for adults with the promise of global attention, and the joint potential for a soul mate and a cash prize. Take that original recipe and add in this new gen Z natural charisma and lack of anxiety around being vulnerable, garnish with universal trauma around the state of the world, and you have the perfect storm to lose months of your life watching a single season of this show. Happily ever after for us all.

Donald Trump reveals why HE is the reason for the Boston Red Sox's nine-game winning streak
Donald Trump reveals why HE is the reason for the Boston Red Sox's nine-game winning streak

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

Donald Trump reveals why HE is the reason for the Boston Red Sox's nine-game winning streak

The Red Sox extended their winning streak to nine on Saturday night, and President Donald Trump has taken credit for the team's recent success. The team visited Trump at the White House on July 3, while it was in DC to face the Nationals. And as Trump wrote on Saturday afternoon: 'They haven't lost since they saw me in the Oval. 8 wins in a row!' The president's post to Truth social came after Boston's walk-off, comeback win over the Rays on Friday night. Trump included a photo of the team celebrating Ceddanne Rafaela's game-winning home run in his post. Following the post, the Red Sox continued their winning ways on Saturday night as they bested the Rays in a slender 1-0 victory. Several members of the team visited the Oval Office and shook hands with Trump on July 3 They'll look to extend their streak to 10 games on Sunday with another matchup against Tampa. The uptick in form has turned Boston's season around, as they now have a record of 52-45 and possession of one of the AL Wild Card spots. Several members of the Red Sox visited the Oval Office and shook hands with Trump earlier this month. The visit came six years after the team visited Trump during his first term in office in 2019, following its World Series title a year earlier. Since his return to office this January, Trump has hosted championship teams in several different sports at the White House. In February, he welcomed the NHL's Florida Panthers - who went on to repeat their title this spring. The LA Dodgers, Ohio State's football team and Philadelphia Eagles all visited Trump as well in April, with the Super Bowl champions the final visit from that group on April 28. The University of Florida' men's basketball team also visited Trump in May. And it was recently revealed that NFL head coaches Jim and John Harbaugh were summoned to the White House for a meeting with Trump. Trump will remain around the sporting world on Sunday when he attends the Club World Cup Final between Chelsea and PSG at MetLife Stadium.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store