Sometime last week, Electronic Arts made the decision to punish 2017’s Madden Bowl winner Chris “Dubby” McFarland for posting a series of “inappropriate” tweets during and directly after the competition – a violation of the company’s code of conduct. In a notice issued to its fans, EA said that it’ll be withholding McFarland’s $3,000 prize and will dock a hundred of his Championship Series Points for not adhering to the rules, especially since he continued to tweet offensive material despite being warned.
It’s unclear exactly what he tweeted since he’s cleaned up his account (we probably wouldn’t have posted it here either way) but McFarland has a reputation for openly posting racial slurs, screenshots of which have been circulating online since as early as 2011.
Interestingly, McFarland seems to have a mixed reaction to the punishment. In one tweet, he seems to acknowledge that he was wrong, but in others he claims that his Twitter will now be “dry as a desert” and that “today is the day the real Dubby dies.”
In a separate email to Polygon, he wrote:
[A lot] of what I said was outta passion and emotion at the time. I understand everything that I did wrong and accept responsibility for my words.
Honestly the fine just shows how much this game is growing. It’s not just for the small group of pro Madden players, it’s for the entire country. We as players need to understand that we not only represent ourselves but the growth of the game. EA holding us more responsible for our actions is a reflection on how big they want Madden to grow, at the end of the day that’s what we all want.
I have accepted the consequences and plan on representing both myself and the game of Madden positively.
As far as the prize money is concerned, EA will be re-investing it into programs designed to help players prepare for the exposure that comes with being a pro.
