Return of EA Sports 'College Football 25' comes with wave of nostalgia

In EA Sports' "College Football 25," we've got back the closest thing to playing, and living, our on-the-field dream.

I play video games. I play a lot of video games, and I'm not very good at a lot of them. But EA Sports' NCAA Football video game is not like other games. For those of us who could never compete at the highest level of college football, this was as close as we got to reenacting or creating the experience of the game-winning drive or winning a national title.

For those blessed with enough talent to play college football, the thrill of seeing your name and being a playable character must be one of the greatest feelings one could have. After all, we became fans of this game because we love the game of college football. We love Saturdays in the fall. We love tailgates and pregame shows. We love coaches yelling on the sidelines and the voices we know calling games for our favorite teams. 

I grew up listening to Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson, Keith Jackson and Brent Musburger, among others, tell me all about the Sooners, Bobby Bowden's Noles and Tom Osborne's Huskers. And I have never forgiven EA Sports for putting Joey Harrington on the cover of "NCAA Football 2003." But I didn't realize how important this game was to me until 2020, when playing football at all was in doubt. My instinct was to go find "NCAA Football 14" and remember just what life was like before I turned 23. Nobody likes you when you're 23.

In the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when every comfortable distraction felt like a warm hug, I drove one hour in one direction to get an ancient copy of "NCAA Football 14" and a PS3 to play. And play. And play.

As I played, I remembered why I loved this game so much. It was as close as I could get to