He's in the game: Gaylord's Brady Pretzlaff makes MSU debut in EA's College Football 25

EAST LANSING ― Brady Pretzlaff is in the game.

After nearly a decade in hiatus, college football has returned to Playstations and Xbox consoles around the country as Electronic Arts released its newest sports game EA Sports College Football 25 on Monday, July 15, giving gamers the opportunity to control nearly any team and any player in NCAA Division I FBS football.

And for fans of Gaylord football, you should see a familiar name on the Michigan State roster.

Former Gaylord linebacker and MSU freshman Brady Pretzlaff made his video game debut when the game was released Monday afternoon, listed as a 69-overall-rated outside linebacker on the Spartans' roster.

"It's crazy seeing myself actually in the game, running around," said Pretzlaff. "I played a lot of NCAA 14 growing up so looking back on that, it's really a full circle moment to be in it this time around. Definitely going to keep working to get that overall up too."

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It has been over 10 years since the last college football game, NCAA Football 14, was released, a once popular franchise that had to be discontinued due to legal disputes over the use of name, image and likeness (NIL) in college athletics. Now, with the changes to NIL that have occurred over the last few years, EA Sports decided to bring the game back.

Nearly every player from every school included in the game was given the option to have their likeness included in the game or not, with the vast majority deciding to be part of the game's revival. In exchange for opting in, players received $600 and a deluxe edition of the game with early access to play.

Pretzlaff is listed as 6 feet 3 inches and 227 pounds as a right outside linebacker. Considered a "power rusher", Preztlaff reps some impressive physical attributes, including an 83 speed rating, 84 agility and 90 acceleration (ratings are 1-99, 1 being the worst and 99 the best). He is the third-highest-rated MSU player at this position, right behind juniors Wayne Matthews III (82 overall) and Darius Snow (74 overall).

Contact GHT Sports Editor Dylan Jespersen at Djespersen@gaylordheraldtimes.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @dylanjespersen, and Instagram, @dylanjespersen

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: He's in the game: Gaylord's Brady Pretzlaff makes MSU debut in EA's College Football 25