More Legal Woes for EA

Electronic Arts (EA), the makers of the NCAA football video games, as well as Madden and a slew of other sports-related video games, is already being sued by a few players who say that they didn’t have the right to use their likeness in a college-related game. This week, two big names in the NFL stepped forward to support the lawsuit.

You may not know the name Sam Keller, who’s the former quarterback heading up the battle against EA, but it’s likely that you know the names Jim Brown and Herb Adderley, who are both Hall of Famers. On Monday, they asked the court to allow them to submit official documents supporting Keller. That’s a major blow for EA, who is supported by the NCAA.

EA and the NCAA say that the players’ images don’t include names on the jerseys, and that their numbers, pictures, and statistics are publicly available, making them usable under free speech laws.

Brown isn’t just coming out of the woodwork to support Keller – this is an issue he really cares about. He sued EA earlier this year for using his likeness in some of the Madden games, but the case was thrown out. EA hopes that Keller’s case will get thrown out as well; this decision will be made on November 17.