The MLB season can be grueling for players. That’s why some New York Yankees have used video games as an emotional outlet.
According to Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, the New York Yankees have one of the most creative emotional outlets in MLB. Twelve of the team’s players and coaches run a Madden league that they’ve titled the “National Savages League.”
The NSL is made up of DJ LeMahieu, Tommy Kahnle, Aaron Judge, Zack Britton, Luke Voit, Clint Frazier, Aaron Hicks, Michael King, Ben Heller, Jonathan Holder, Mike Tauchman, and Tyler Wade. Six of them manage AFC teams while the other six manage NFC teams. Nobody manages the New York Jets or New York Giants.
The current favorite to win the Super Bowl is LeMahieu, who’s playing with the Detroit Lions. He recently beat the league commissioner Kahnle’s Philadelphia Eagles, according to Adler.
This league isn’t all for fun though. These are some of the most competitive people in the world, and that carries over to Madden. Kahnle apparently used to throw and break controllers after losing matches. Nonetheless, he’s since put that stress-relief method behind him.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, LeMahieu is calm and collected. When asked about his Madden skills, his response was simple.
“Well…I’ve won all my games,” he said.
The most notable development from this is that it doesn’t look like Kahnle has a future in coaching. The other players in the league had some harsh words for him as commissioner. Heller even called Kahnle a “dictator.”
Kahnle plans to run the league throughout the entire season. His biggest goal is to have everyone tune in to “Twitch,” a streaming website. That way they can watch each other play and thus make it a more entertaining experience for fans.
Video games are a popular clubhouse choice for stress relief, but the Yanks are surely taking it to another level.
