When I refer to a "Madden fanboy", am not talking about someone who likes a series, but more like individuals who do the following:

I had been hesitant to pick up Madden for awhile now (got the deluxe package for the old original Madden), because I wanted the AI to assist with the passing.  I don't play Madden enough to want to master passing at this point.  Also, for me, playcalling is what interests me.  I was holding off Madden even this year, because I wasn't sure it address this, but heard rumors that it had.   Well, whenever I discuss Madden, and ask about that, and my interest in the game, I get things like: "Get Head Coach" (nevermind Head Coach isn't out this year, and isn't supported, nor do people want to do coach only so I lose part of people I can play with).  And then I also will get, "Well Head Coach sucks anyhow".  And then there is the reply along the lines of:  "Don't be a weenie, PRACTICE!". 

Give me break.  I want to play it the way I like.  The fanboy can play it the way they want, but why force me be limited in what I want?  It isn't like I was asking for a new feature, just an old feature I leaned on to return.  But, is that sufficient?  NOOOO.  I have to endure the berating by fanboys who insist that Madden ONLY be in the form they like.  And I would say this is part of the reason why Madden took a nosedive.

Anyhow, this would be just annoying if it wasn't for my really want to get the game.  For me to be able to find out, it cost me around $10 to rent Madden, to see if had the feature, and yes it does.  You can turn coach mode on and the AI will control the passing like they used to (and it is an OPTIONAL feature, so the fanboys can control everything).  So, thank you Madden fanboys, for forcing me to spend an addition $10 instead of answering my original question.  You are a blight on humanity for your mentality, and needlessly making me have to pay extra to confirm this.  And I did download the demo, but didn't see that feature in the demo at all.

Ok, now that I got the Madden fanbous are a blight on humanity, I will say this:  Madden is back!  NFL Football fans GET THIS GAME!  The new tackling adds adds a whole new dimension, and you can play it coach only or GM only mode to.  And the presentation is approaching NFL 2K5 (I do miss them not having video highlights of other games, but at least they have halftime and postgame show).

I cant bring myself to read this.

How often do you post message replying to message you can't bring yourself to read?  You can replace Madden with another game that has hardcore followers who demand everyone playing the game "get up to speed" or play something else regarding the game.

I do agree this year's madden has returned to the glory days of Madden 06 and 04

You mean running on the PS2 and original XBox?  The series took a nosedive when then went this generation with it, taking out a lot, trying to have everything fit on the DVD disk and have the graphics updated.  A casuality of the move was the AI assist on the passing, which I depended on.

Hardly unique to Madden. Wander into an EVO Tournament sometime, and you'll find a wide variety of such blights

Which isn't to say that all tournament players are like that, but the community is rife with those types.

Madden 10 is awesome!! AP is unstoppable!!

So, you can take my comment as a general observation about a type of hardcore player who insists their view of the world is the only acceptable one.  In the case of this year, it cost me over $9 to confirm Madden did what I wanted.  I rented the game and returned it within an hour later, after confirming.  Nevermind that Gamestop didn't know either.  When one is in a place where the store is clueless, and you depend on the community for answers, you expect to get helpful answers.  It seems hardcore Madden fans aren't that.

I believe the board wargame industry also happened to suffer from something like this.  They failed to reach out to new players, and kept making their games more and more "hard core".  Eventually the whole being accessible to new and casual players were lost, and the audience got smaller and smaller.  The companies increasingly pandered to a smaller and smaller audience, which is what Madden has had all over it.  And then EA thinks going exclusive is what counts. 

By the way, in regards to Head Coach, why should EA even release that? Why not have the features of Head Coach in Madden? Do what I was used to with Madden, and let people play the game on whatever level people are comfortable, but have Head Coach's features be in Madden. Do this and release ONE product. This way the real hardcore Madden junkie can get the ultimate football game.

Why didn't you just come here and ask us? I would have found out for you. I've had the game since day one.

Regarding Head Coach, I can't justify the game's existence, because I've yet to put it in my 360 (I have the collector's edition of Madden 09) but it might come down to the extra licensing to get the coaches to appear in their products. They fall under a different licensing than the players, which falls under a different licensing from NFL network, which falls under a different licensing from the NFL itself. The NFL is such a huge mess in that way.