Electronic Arts, producer of the Madden NFL video game, landed in hot water Thursday when users noticed that a soundtrack song referencing former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick had his name muted out, Polygon reports. The song “Big Bank,” featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean, and Nicki Minaj, was featured in the Madden NFL 19’s soundtrack and had originally included a reference to Kaepernick. Big Sean sounded off on Twitter, saying Kaepernick’s name was censored “like it was a curse word” and said his team did not approve the decision. An EA spokesperson told Polygon that it was a licensing mixup on the company’s end. EA had mistakenly believed that since it didn’t have the rights to feature Kaepernick in the video game, his name could not be in soundtrack songs, the spokesperson said. “We messed up, and the edit should never have happened. We will make it right, with an update to Madden NFL 19 on August 6 that will include the reference again,” the EA spokesperson wrote. References to Kaepernick have been scrubbed out from the Madden video game series before, with mentions of his protest of the National Anthem during games not included in Madden NFL 16.
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