Part of The “Immaculate Deflection” was video game inspired

It was one of the craziest plays of the 2009 season, as the Denver Broncos’ Brandon Stokley caught a defender’s tip of a Kyle Orton pass for the game winning touchdown.

Rather than running immediately into the endzone, however, Stokley cut across the field and ran six seconds off the clock before scoring. That move ensured the explosive Cincinnati Bengals offense wouldn’t have enough time to pull off its own miracle. Stokley told Wired‘s Chris Sullentrop the move was straight from his countless hours of playing football video games:

“It definitely is [out of a videogame]. I think everybody who’s played those games has done that.”

Stokley said he had performed the maneuver “hundreds of times” in video games before playing it out to win a real-life NFL game.

EA Sports’ Designer Donny Moore was watching the game and instantly recognized the play as Videogame Football 101. It’s a point of pride with both Moore and John Madden himself, who signed on with EA to make the most realistic game possible. Even Madden probably never thought the video game would change the actual game.

Stokely isn’t the only one using things he picked up in video games on the real gridiron. The Wired piece also talks about Tim Grunhard, a former All-Pro offensive lineman with the Kansas City Chiefs. Grunhard is now a high school football coach and Madden NFL is one of his textbooks. Grunhard said the game gives high school a better understanding of complex coverages and football tactics.

Hey, the next time your little one wants to get in another game of Madden NFL, maybe you should let him. Maybe you should play together and help him learn how to break down the Colts defense. You never know where the experience could lead.

Read [Wired] via [The Pitch]