Two letters and a number. That's all you need to be a household name in college football—or its video game, at least. But this year, when NCAA Football 14 hits shelves on Tuesday, South Carolina's fearsome DE#7 and Texas A&M's do-it-all QB#2 will be joined, for the first time, by active players appearing under their…

There will be real football players, using their real names, in the debut of NCAA Football Ultimate Team this year. They just won't be anyone suiting up on a college football field this fall.

Gamers, including those who don't even play sports video games, love to hate the exclusive license the NFL sold to EA Sports in 2005, making Madden the only NFL video game on consoles. Let's not forget the NFL Players' Association is a part of this, too. With just one exception (GameLoft's NFL 2010 for iPhone, no…

Remarkably, Madden NFL 12 will depict players suffering concussions, according to the president of the NFL Players' Association, but apparently in a manner that reinforces the seriousness of the injury and the message that playing through one is not a good idea.

The news here isn't that Jim Brown, a man who certainly knows his rights, is supporting college players suing Electronic Arts over the use of their likenesses. It's how he lost his own claim against the Madden series publisher.

Saying it wanted to patch things up with its increasingly embittered and estranged retirees, the NFL Players' Association dropped its appeal of a multimillion-dollar judgment related to former players' uncompensated appearance in EA's Madden series.