In the Huddle: PhillyRon

Join us as we shine a spotlight on Ron Jackson, better known as PhillyRon, a passionate Madden player with over 20 years of competitive experience. Discover how his love for the game began, his journey through the Madden community, and his dedication to helping others improve their skills. Whether you’re a newcomer or a seasoned player, PhillyRon’s insights and strategies will inspire you to elevate your Madden game.

Madden changes every year, but some themes remain constant. As long as there are people that need help mastering Madden, there will be people willing to help. MaddenUniversity.com celebrates community members working tirelessly to enhance the experiences for other Madden players. This Spotlight features a player who makes frequent contributions as a strategy guide writer and active tournament participant. Ron Jackson, better known as PhillyRon, has been playing Madden competitively for over 20 years.

Ron and I have only met once, for a short time at Player's Bowl IV in his backyard of Philadelphia, PA. What I came away with was a seriousness (probably because he was getting into tournament character) about Madden that couldn't quite hide the joy of the battle!

PhillyRon is one of the most passionate Madden players around. We spoke to him recently to get a feel of what cultivated his passion for Madden and his concern about the state of the Madden community:

TNT713: How long have you been playing Madden?

PhillyRon: I'm not going to say I've been playing since it came out, because I think it came out on the Apple computer or something like that. But I've been playing since, whew Good Lord, um, I believe since it first hit Sega. Since 90 96?

TNT713: I played my first game of Madden on the Sega Genesis when I was in college back in 91 or 92.

PhillyRon: Madden '92! That's what it was and it came with that big booklet with the depth chart. And we loved it because of that. That's exactly what it was.

TNT713: So who did you play with back in the day?

PhillyRon: Aw man. I would say, That's fresh off the Tecmo Bowl era on Nintendo, so I woulda started playing with the Eagles or the Raiders. I've been a Philly fan all my life, but back then it would have been Randall as my quarterback. Great defense, that would have been Reggie White. I don't know if Jerome Brown was still alive then.

TNT713: I think Brown was on that game.

PhillyRon: Clyde Simmons, Seth Joiner, Byron Evans, Eric Allen, Ben Smith, Wes Hopkins. Yeah. I loved it back then man. And the Raiders were my cousins favorite team. I mean, we'd just go back and forth. He'd be playing with those Raiders and I'd be playing with the Eagles. I'd also mess around with you know the Bills and Denver a lot.

As we gave way to nostalgia, we began to realize that our first Madden experiences are farther away than they feel. We both realized that 20 years of Madden play is a LONG TIME. It took a moment to get the dates right (and realize how old we really are) before we discussed how our passion for Madden grew.

TNT713: Back in the day when you first started how good a player were you? Were you the man right off the bat, or did it take a while?

PhillyRon: Put it like this, I've always been a player that was good based on competition and repetition. So like everybody in the neighborhood, we'd play. And where I grew up in Philly, it just so happened that we had a whole lot of young boys on the block. We played Madden, but Madden was like an extension of us watching regular football. Then us going outside and playing street football. And then coming in and playing Madden. So you were going to watch it on TV, you were going go outside, and the last resort was to come in and play Madden. Because you really wanted to be outside playing football with all the guys on the block. And that's when we would act like Bo Jackson or I'm gonna run around like Randall. And then we'd get in and start playing this video game and just lock in.

I was pretty good back then. I think one of those years, it might have been 93 or the next year when there was almost like a jump-snap glitch in that game where you pressed the C-Button it would get your line to automatically to fire a certain way. And we would use that to cheat the snap. So yeah, it was beautiful back then. You were just playing with your boys to play the game. It wasn't about rules. We were just playing to play the game and just really enjoyed it.

Far as being good? I'll never say that I'm the best. The people I played against the most was one of my cousins. So at that time it was just me and him playing heavy and we were like the best in the neighborhood. I didn't care about being good, I just wanted to make sure I always beat my cousin. It was always about beating my cousin. And then when Madden grew and developed to now where it went over to the PS2, my cousin moved down to like South Carolina and then I have another cousin who everybody called MyG and he, for the our early part of GameTimePhilly, was a 3 year champion. Like back to back to back. The only people I would lose to, I would lost to him or Bobby (Storm). And that was it. That's where it all started from. I didn't care about who else, I just wanted to beat my cousin. No matter which one it was, we always wanted to beat each other.

And I'm talking about not playing Madden like hey, it's just two or three hours a day. This was when I was in college or I had just had my daughter. I would put in 15-17 hours a day playing the game. And we would play with different teams. We would just like randomly pick a team and just keep going at it.

Fast forward to today and Ron is a family man tasked with the responsibilities of raising kids and keeping food on the table; all while authoring guides to help lesser experienced players develop their Madden skills to match their competitive drive. We asked PhillyRon about how Madden fits in with his overall gaming.

TNT713: Are you one of those guys that plays Madden all year round?

PhillyRon: It doesn't come out of my Xbox. Now lets see. I bought UFC fighting and that was for last year. That came out in the summer. So I bought that game, put it in for like 2 days. That was a brand new game and it still couldn't compete with Madden 10. So I wound up taking it out.

I had NBA 2K. Loved the game, everybody else loves it. Put it in for maybe a week. I can't play it. I only mess with Madden. It will sit in my Xbox from August to August. Once the new one comes out, I just change disks. That's all I do.

TNT713: I definitely identify with that. What is it about Madden that makes us want to play it all the time?

PhillyRon: What you just said there, That's a perception that we have that we need a lot of the younger kids to have. We love it or I believe I love it because of competition. Period.

I would almost go out on a limb and say that you've played some type of competitive team sport, because for you to want to play the game, that means you constantly want to get better. There's guys that we have in our community who only want to play when it's involving money. That was never our first goal or our main goal. Yeah, we would play in a league where the winner would get a couple hundred dollars but it wasn't I'm just playing because of that.

You know I'm playing Gene is in this league. And everytime me and him play, he beat me 2 or 3 points. And I gotta get him. And what better way to beat him and get this chip, but also get some of his money. Or "that league over there that's $500 I'm gonna go play, I don't care who's in it, I'm just gonna go play." Nah. It's never been like that for us.

So as far as I'm concerned, the drive is competition. I don't care if it's a free league. If it's just guys down the street playing. And they say hey I'm wanna play some Madden I'm gonna play. It's not about money it's about competition.

No doubt, PhillyRon is the quintessential Madden player; one of many who make up our grand community of virtual gridiron coaches and players with a common goal. All of us want to extend our thanks to players like PhillyRon that share what they know as they serve as diplomats of the game.