Ryan Fitzpatrick's Madden '06 Avatar Looks Nothing Like Him

It has been 16 years since the St. Louis Rams selected 22-year old Ryan Fitzpatrick out of Harvard in the 7th round of the NFL Draft. Having just signed with the Washington Football Team, Fitzpatrick has now been with nine different teams. The franchise he's spent the most time with in the NFL has been the John Madden football video game series. Here's what he looked like in Madden '06.

Based on the graphics, I'm going to guess this is from the GameCube version of Madden '06, but who knows. All we can be sure of is that Fitzpatrick looks very different without a beard, both in the early 2000's and today. The only difference is that now video game technology is capable of rendering his beard.

As for his rating, that 72 seems quite generous in hindsight. The young Fitzmagic got into three games for the Rams that season, going 0-3, completing 56 percent of his passes, and throwing eight interceptions compared to just four touchdown passes. He would eventually peak at 82 with the Buffalo Bills on Madden '13, quite a leap from his first year in Buffalo when he was his lowest rating ever, a 65 overall in Madden '10.