Ravens Receiver Loves His Xbox 360
At A Glance
- NFL Pro Mark Clayton loves videogame football and was the runner-up in this year's Madden Bowl XX.
The Baltimore Ravens are off to their best start in years and second-year wide receiver Mark Clayton is a big part of the team's rejuvenated offense. When he's not on the field catching passes and scoring touchdowns, this NFL star is playing Xbox 360™. At Super Bowl XL in Detroit, Clayton competed in the Madden Bowl Finals, where he ultimately lost to Alex Smith of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Clayton has been playing video games since the early days, dating back to classic Atari 2600 titles. He's kept up with all the new systems along the way and has both Xbox® and Xbox 360. He's also played every iteration of Madden ever released.
Receiver Mark Clayton is leading the way in Baltimore.
New and Improved
Clayton said the Madden franchise has improved tremendously over the years, especially with the next generation versions on Xbox 360. Although it's made major strides over the past year, the franchise has always kept Clatyon's interest because he believes it's always been the best videogame around.
"Just from the graphics to the gameplay, all of that has been awesome," said Clayton. "It's pretty crazy what they can do with the graphics and all that stuff and to see yourself in these games and how real it looks, it's pretty awesome."
"If I'm going to play Madden, I approach the video game
as if I was in the real game and take the appropriate
strategies that match up best against that team."
Clayton said that in the locker room, the pros take their Madden pretty seriously.
"I mean, I was dealing with a bunch of real competitive guys, so to take a videogame and throw that into the mix, it only makes everything that much more intense and it's something we take pretty serious around here."
Mark Clayton logs a lot of hours on Xbox Live playing Madden.
Clayton said that being on the cover of Madden NFL 07 brings major bragging rights. He said everybody knows about it and everybody respects Madden.
He's in the Game
Clayton said there are a lot of NFL pros who play Madden. During training camp, an Xbox 360 was in one of the player's rooms for gaming between practices. A group of eight players competed on NCAA Football 07 on Xbox 360 in a tournament complete with playoffs. Clayton said the competition is pretty tough.
When it comes to Madden, Clayton focuses on each match based on the team he's playing against. He picks the appropriate team that matches up against his competition on the virtual field.
Next generation graphics bring pros like Mark Clayton to life.
"If I'm going to play Madden, I approach the video game as if I was in the real game and take the appropriate strategies that match up best against that team," said Clayton. "I played in the Madden Bowl and the Super Bowl last year. It was tight, man. It's a great competitive outlet. I was able to finish second in that one—that was tough for me. I am looking forward to going into it next year in Miami and coming back with the championship."
Virtual Gridiron
Clayton said a lot of the NFL players take the videogame so seriously that they'll actually call EA Sports about their statistics in the game.
"Yeah, I got in and complained about my blocking and stuff, it was pretty funny," said Clayton.
In addition to playing Madden and NCAA Football 07, Clayton logs hours online playing NBA Live 07 and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™, which he calls a "pretty sweet game."
Article by John Gaudiosi
