DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Fantasy & Gaming Hester Gets 100 Speed Rating in Madden 08

DEVIN HESTER: MAXIMUM SPEED

It's long been rumored, it's been hinted at, it's been lobbied for, and it's been perennially denied -- but now, an NFL player has finally achieved the near-impossible: meriting a perfect 100 in one of Madden NFL's proprietary skills ratings.


Chicago return man Devin Hester has attained perfection in the "Speed" category, gaining the maximum 100 rating in the upcoming Madden NFL 08 for his amazing wheels. Hester, who set an NFL single-season record with six returns for touchdowns in his rookie campaign of 2006, has been known as the "Windy City Flyer" for his unique ability to turn on the afterburners and bring a kick back for six points. His 100 rating tops the previous high of 99, given to such players as Deion Sanders, Randy Moss, Charles Woodson, and a couple others.

Hester racked up his six scores on three punt returns, two kick returns and an incredible 108-yard return of a missed field goal attempt against the New York Giants. Additionally, he took the opening kickoff of Super Bowl XLI 92 yards for a score, making him the first player ever to open the Super Bowl with a touchdown on the very first kick.


Hester has been known to have been lobbying members of the Madden NFL 08 development team for the top speed rating. He's certainly deserving of the honor; after all, there's pure speed and then there's football speed, which measures how fast a player can go weighed down with pads and equipment while 11 men on the other team try to bring him down. As he showed many times during his breakout rookie season, Hester's football speed is top-notch, and now Madden NFL 08 will pay him the ultimate respect by giving him a perfect rating in that category.

"That's just about the best thing you could have told me," Hester said with a huge smile, when informed of his new Speed rating. "It's an honor -- I don't know what to say, really."

How does he feel about being rated higher than his friend and mentor "Neon" Deion Sanders, who was once timed at 4.19 in the forty-yard dash and returned a kick or two in his day? "Deion has told me a bunch of times that I was as fast as he was," Hester replied diplomatically.

As fast as he is, the return man -- who also plays cornerback for the Bears -- still has some room for improvement in other areas, but like most NFL players that also play Madden, when we inquired about some of his other ratings, he was less than satisfied. "Well, since you're asking, my defensive awareness was low -- too low," he said, "and I definitely need to break more tackles. On a few of my returns last year I feel like I showed what I can do in that category."

Hester will just have to live with those "subpar" ratings for now, and really, the Breaking Tackles rating may not mean much in the end -- with a 100 Speed rating, who is going to catch him in the first place?

http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames/news/story?id=2826180

Wow. He's fast, but aren't there faster guys in the league? Isn't DeAngelo Hall faster?

I like your sig.

GO GATORS!!!!!!!

hahaha he isn't a OSU fan..he lost a sig bet

It's nice to see people are heckeling you from both ends heh..OSU fans hate you and now SEC fans hate you :: muhaha ::taps fingers...excellent::

One thing I'd like Madden to do is to do away with overall ratings, that way you have to look more at attributes that you want in a player instead of overalls.

I liked the way it was and the reasoning that was given. No one can be perfect is why they only gave 99s before.. I think they should stick to that.

Thats what I dont like about it. You cant have "perfect speed." Peyton manning doesnt have perfect accuracy. LT doesnt have perfect awareness.

I didn't think it was possible to go over 99. Even when you do the training camp between seasons and you can add points to their attributes, you can't go higher than 99...

hester isn't even the fastest guy in the league...

especially with ted ginn at the doorstep of the nfl... if you give hester a 100, you have to give it to ginn and deangelo hall, and probably 2 or 3 other guys

no... because Madden is make-believe. There is no factual basis to any of it except that they use the names of real players in a simulation of a real sport.

The Madden Ratings numbers for players change drastically from year to year and it is based soley on popular perception.

This is all about hype and advetising and getting caught up in the returns this guy had.... and being that the article flat out states that Hester had been petitioning for this very thing, I would not be surprised in the least if there was some monetary marketing agreement tied to this..... in fact, I would be shocked if it didn't.

Suppose it gives Hester bragging rights. The difference between 99 and 100 is minimal.

What happens if he gets any better? They certainly can't make him any faster.

200 speed?

You have to take it up a notch. Just like in Spinal Tap when they go to 11.

j/c...

madden shouldn't have done this... for the d'angelo halls and champ baileys in the league, its disrespectful...

and how can a rookies speed just jump from one thing last year, to another in one year... to the point where he is rewarded a 100!!

madden needs to get speeds right from the jump.. if anything Hester's acceleration should be 99...

heh, read this... it'll shed some light.

wow that must make calvin johnson like 150 speed then

I know, I don't look at just overalls, i do like you and pick certain players for what I like to have. I just think it'd be more realistic if there were no overall ratings.

no, it makes Calvin Johnson less than 100.

i think they need to take back the 100 speed rating.. seriously..

Why is everyone so upset over a 100 speed rating. What's the big deal? As people have posted above me, what's in one attribute point? It's not going to change anything.

because it shatters the misplaced belief that Madden football was somehow realistic or in any way accurrate.

Its as accurate as any rank and file system of numbers. Top 5 and bottome 5 are right,, with everything in between up for debate. I dont see where its any less accurate than any ranking system thats out there.

never said it was less accurate than other systems... just that it's not accurate, factual, believable or representative of reality.

Their system is based partly on perception, partly on past performance and partly on player popularity and apparently partly on how much lobbying a player does. The simple fact that a player can petition (Hester) to get that higher speed rating when there are other players in the league who are documented as being faster destroys any and all "credibility" it might have had.

It's Fantasy Land, always has been, always will be... that's all I was saying (primarily for the benefit of the sort of folks that like to point to Madden numbers in Pure Football discussions as if they are some kind of valid reference material).