Breeding competition on the virtual gridiron

With no spring practices or games, the Southern Oregon University football team has turned to the Madden football game to stay competitive and build their brotherhood.

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S-o-u football would normally still be competing against each other between the lines during spring camp.

But with social distancing restrictions preventing the raiders from doing that, they found a new way to breed competition.

Good ol' fashioned madden football.

In a world where most face to face interactions are now done virtually it's only fitting that the newest battle ground for competition between teammates on the s-o-u football team is on a console.

(take mitch key) mitch malot says, "the madden tournament for us was something kind fo me, coach sanders and jaxon thought about and it's honestly jsut a way to create competition."

And with the brackets set, the competition is on.

The first round underway on both xbox and playstation.

But where the real importance of the tournament comes down to isn't just keeping that competitive edge.

It's also about building a brotherhood.

(take jaxon key) jaxon clark says, "i think last week or the week before would have been our spring game so it's really difficult in these times to be able to bond as a team and create that brotherhood and the family.

So, we're trying to find all these different areas we can do that in replace of actually doing it on the field."