The Death of Football games?

There has been alot of talk lately about EA's exclusive deal with the NFL. I don't particularly think its the end of the football genre. I think that on the current hardware there isn't much more that can be done with games like Madden. I don't lament for Sega's sports games because they were not that much better than Madden. They got alot of their rave reviews simply because they were not EA.

While everyone is bemoaning the expected lack of competition in the market, which led the previous incarnations of Madden to stagnate, I'm more curious to see what will happen with other companie's games.

The first part of the answer has already been announced. Midway will take its Blitz franchise and combine it with the ESPN TV drama Playmakers. I loved the show Playmakers because of its gritty behind the scenes depictions of the life of a football player. The on-field action wasnt a big deal.

It begs the question, can you make a game that is more about a dramatic story, but happens to have football action too? People talk about genre combining but can it been done with sports as one of the base parts? Can you make an interesting game of Monday through Saturday and still have a fun Sunday? GTA/Fable meets Madden?