TAMPA, Florida – Santana Moss remains one of the most influential athletes in the Miami Hurricanes football program. The current Washington Redskins receiver graduated as the school's all-time leader in receiving yards (2,546), punt return yards (1,196), and all-purpose yards (4,394). The speedy receiver also was named the "Most Outstanding Field Performer" for the 2000 Big East Outdoor Track and Field championships. In 1999, Moss finished the 60-meter dash in 6.83 seconds. Moss was in Tampa for Madden Bowl XV to socialize with other NFL stars and play some Xbox 360 Madden NFL 09. The receiver, who caught the ball for 1,044 yards and had six touchdowns last season, took a timeout from the virtual gridiron to talk about his videogame addiction in this exclusive interview.

Do you play videogames at all?

I play a lot of videogames. Madden, I play it, but I'm not great at it. But I mean I play it amongst myself. You know, I play against people too. I'm just the guy that can sit there and just know everything about it. But I play a lot of other kind of games, you know, from fighting games, shooting games, stuff like that.

What are some of your favorite games?

You name it.

Like Call of Duty?

Call of Duty is one of them. I play the Wii a lot now, too. I play Mario Kart on Wii. So, you know, you name it, but I get whatever I feel like is best at the time. You know, I play Xbox Live. I play a lot of other kinds of games.

How is the competition online when you’re on Xbox Live?

Pretty decent. You know, I've only beat one guy online, so I stopped playing online.

What are your thoughts about the Wii Fit and the Wii and all the physical fitness that it is promoting?

The Wii is just taking videogames by storm. You know, I don't know who is coming up with the stuff, but they got some great stuff, man, and I think it gets the kids off their behinds. I'm in there playing a card game and I'm sweating. It makes videogames fun again. It makes it not bad to sit in the house and play a videogame, because nowadays kids don't go outside, so I think the Wii came about at the right time because these kids get lazier, so it gives them something to do instead of sit there and just play a game.

What do you think of kids having to throw the ball in Madden on the Wii?

Yeah. It's pretty decent, man. I like it. Whoever brought it up, I think they're doing a great job with everything. I'd like to see the new stuff like the Rockman and the Tire Rope. I love all that stuff. All that stuff is amazing. So whoever brought it up, man, that's something. They did a great job and I know they're making a sh*t load of money.

Videogames raked in over $21 billion last year.

$21 Billion?

In the U.S. alone.

Wow.

And what role do videogames play for you in the off season? Do you get more time to play?

Just about when the off season is getting ready to come I start playing a lot of games. It's something I do just to kill the day. Sometimes you're sitting at home and you have nothing else to do and you just get on a game. Sometimes the game starts my day off. You know I wake up in the morning and have a couple of guys over and I just jump on a game, any game. It don't matter, and it just starts the day off. Get that little buzz about you going and then you go off and have fun with your day?

Do you have any suggestions for EA Sports about what you’d like to see in the next Madden?

Man, I don't know what more you could do to Madden, you know what I mean? Honestly, I don't know what more can you do. Whether they don't have anything new that they're going to add, I'd be amazed to see it. I look forward to being amazed, because it is just like everything now is so precise on what we do. You don't think that you can be that precise about somebody as far as the moves and everything else. But it's amazing, man. I look forward to seeing it.

How big a deal is the player ratings every year when the new came comes out for NFL pros like yourself?

It's cool, man. Sometimes I feel like the ratings can get you. You know what I mean? Because they have you down as something percentage and you know your game is somewhere else, so I never get wrapped up into it. I just say as long as they give me what I know them for, I can make myself just like them other guys, you know what I am saying?

In the old days they used to give you like four or five and now they give you like 35 ratings.

I mean, you got crazy numbers, but it's all good.

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.