Now — after months of cancellations — Street has put a kibosh on the ride altogether.

“What concerns me is our highest elected official in the city of Philadelphia won’t keep his word,” Mandel said. “I’m sure the idea must have crossed his mind that it wouldn’t be someone who was going to come and just tell him how wonderful things are in the city of Philadelphia.”

According to Loree D. Jones, Street’s secretary for external affairs, the mayor proposed dates that didn’t work for Mandel and vice versa.

“The mayor had to cancel not because of the nature of the outing or the person that it was with but mainly because it’s the mayor of the fifth-largest city [in the country] and having other things to do,” Jones said.

It was this passion that led Rod Lane, a Hackensack, N.J., middle school teacher and a national tournament organizer, to push for a national Madden holiday, all for a good cause. He will be promoting his idea at the Cheltenham Square EB Games store late Monday. The store has the highest number of Madden reservations in the area, a good place to gain recruits.

“A Madden holiday could be used to do a number of things,” Lane said. “Take Philly, for example. Look at all the kids involved in gun violence lately. I’d be willing to bet some hard money that most of them play this game. Maybe the hook is to get them participating in tournaments and then get them into something else positive while we have their attention.”