Yeah Madden is how I got into it as well.
My nan went to Electronics Boutiques (**** I’m old, do they even exist anymore?) and asked the guy working there for a football game for her grandsons birthday, meaning Fifa or Pro Evo. Funny ****er decided to shift one of the pile of unsold Madden 2002 copies to this unsuspecting old lady.
I got it and wasn’t overly happy but gave it a go and really enjoyed it, it’s why I support the Vikings. When you turned the game on it asked what team do you follow and I didn’t have any links to any teams (didn’t know there was an NFL team called the Saints at the time, thank **** as I would definitely have chosen them)
So I shut my eyes and let the universe choose, held down on the controller and stopped at a random point and decided this would be my team, hello Vikings. I played that game a lot and various other Maddens over the next few years and started watching it on tv and understanding it a lot more. I would recommend watching with someone who knows the sport as there are a lot of rules and it is very complex and tactical that you don’t really appreciate at first, but once you do it is really great.
Anyway was when I was about 20 and watched some **** kicker from the Vikings miss a field goal to win in the playoffs that any under 10 football player in the UK would’ve made and broke my heart again that it finally dawned on me. The universe wasn’t ****ing me over or hated me, the Vikings are last alphabetically so I was sat there like a little idiot with my eyes shut and the game had just scrolled through the alphabet.