Madden NFL 2000 Player Ratings - 1999 NFL Season

1999 NFL Season / Madden NFL 2000

Madden NFL 2000 shipped in summer 1999 for the 1999 NFL season. Launch ratings are set before the season is played, so they reflect the previous year’s performance - a player’s breakout shows up in the next year’s game.

Madden NFL 2000 released in August 1999 with Barry Sanders on the North American cover, an odd twist since Sanders abruptly walked away from the game that summer at the peak of his career. It was the last Madden before the era of annual player cover athletes began with Eddie George the following year, and it pushed the franchise deeper into the 32-bit generation with expanded create-a-player tools.

The Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV, 23-16 over Tennessee, linebacker Mike Jones stopping Kevin Dyson one yard short of the tying touchdown on the final play. Kurt Warner, an undrafted former grocery-store stocker, won both regular-season MVP and game MVP. Edgerrin James led the league with 1,553 rushing yards and won Offensive Rookie of the Year, Marshall Faulk piled up a record 2,429 yards from scrimmage, and Warren Sapp won Defensive Player of the Year.

The season belonged to the Greatest Show on Turf, Warner throwing 41 touchdowns for a 13-3 Rams team that came out of nowhere, the kind of breakout no preseason rating could have called. Faulk, Isaac Bruce, and a resurgent Warner formed the highest-scoring offense the league had seen, while Sanders' sudden retirement left his 99 frozen in place as one of the great what-ifs in the database.