Hasta La Creative!

Madden is turning 25 this year. That means decades of video game football obsessions have now been around long enough to be passed from parents to children and then some. To kick off the game’s promotional campaign, EA Sports debuted “Running Back Sons” yesterday, a minute-long spot about the origins of star running backs Arian Foster and Marshawn Lynch. While you might expect their motivation to come from supportive families, inspirational coaches, and the love of the game, it turns out that their success can be traced back to a friendly battle of brinksmanship between their fictitious fathers, Darian Foster and Marshawn Lynch Sr.

Fathers Foster and Lynch (played by the actual Foster and Lynch, respectively) spend all of their time playing Madden in unusual places as their sons train for football. At one point, young Marshawn even spins around a bear, establishing the beginning of “Beast Mode.” Finally, now that Arian and Marshawn are millionaires, their fathers can play Madden in the pool, which sounds about as dangerous as training with a bear.

This spot is sure to get plenty of airtime in the next few months, especially considering Foster and Lynch have decent acting chops when it comes to commercials. As Marshawn Sr. says, that’s that beast mode right there (raspy old-man laugh) Credits after the jump.

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