Bednarik Unsure How Magic Image Box Works

There’s a new video game coming out that features legends from football’s past. The game was made because there’s a big market for pro football’s past, as everyone loves to remember history and respect elders.

Ha ha, of course not. It was made because EA Sports has an exclusive NFL license for Madden, and so another company wanted to make a football game. At least one Eagle of yore is in the game, although I think he has a little trouble figuring out exactly how a video game works:

Of the 300-some players 2K Sports targeted, 241 ended up in the game. Among the ones who got away, Jackson wanted too much money. Lawrence Taylor already had a deal with another publisher. Then-Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann declined — no joke — on the recommendation of his political advisors.

By contrast, Chuck Bednarik said yes. But only after the game maker cleared a few things up for the man who nearly ended Frank Gifford’s career.

“We were on the phone, and I actually had to explain that he would not physically be in the television set,” recalls Sandra Tabata, who works at IMG World, the agency 2K Sports used to locate former players. “The younger guys are familiar with it, but some of the older guys, they didn’t even know what video game technology was.”

If anything, this only increases the legend of Concrete Charlie. I mean, he clearly was born in approximately 1862, so it’s pretty amazing he led the Eagles to the 1960 NFL Championship.

The ultimate retro football experience [ESPN.com]

Breaking: MediaNews head toured Inky/DN

This just in: Dean Singleton, head of MediaNews Group, has toured the Inquirer and Daily News offices. He was interested in buying both papers if his company had been able to strike a partnership with Gannett before bids for Knight Ridder were solicited.

MediaNews owns 40 daily newspapers in 9 states with a combined daily circulation of 1.7 million. (Sunday circ is about six million higher.) Among the company’s biggest papers are the Denver Post, the Detroit News and the Los Angeles Daily News. The company’s closest assets are the York Dispatch and Daily News. The company also owns the Lebanon Daily News.

The company has been mentioned as a possible suitor for some of the 12 papers McClatchy will sell after buying Knight Ridder. Those papers include the Inquirer and Daily News.

Update: Reports from DN staffers say that there are “some local people” interested in some Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. action, although no names were mentioned.