Like many children, Henry Tabansi enjoyed playing video games while growing up.
For Tabansi, who was raised in Nigeria — a country where soccer is the primary sport — video games provided an opportunity to showcase his skills and create lasting memories with his brother.
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“EA Sports was like my childhood,” Tabansi told the Sentinel. “I used to play FIFA a lot with my little brother. We always used to sit back and just say, (their advertising slogan) ‘EA Sports … It’s in the Game.’ Their games made an impact on my life.”
Years later, that moment would come full circle as Tabansi found himself in EA Sports’ studios in downtown Orlando.
It was a surreal moment for Tabansi, a redshirt junior offensive lineman who transferred to UCF in January after being a two-year starter at Buffalo.
“Having the opportunity to go there and see how they made Madden (NFL) and seeing the process of what it takes to bring the game to life was honestly cool,” he said.
Tabansi and nearly a dozen of his UCF teammates participated in the three-day career tour at EA Sports’ offices in downtown Orlando in May. The program, in its second year, was created to help current athletes explore potential careers in the video-game industry.
Among the Knights on hand were quarterback Alonza Barnett III, cornerbacks Jayden Bellamy, Nicholas Antoine and Antione Jackson, offensive linemen Laparka Langston and Tabansi, linebacker Jahleel Culbreath, defensive tackle Brad Gurley, running back Taevion Swint and safety Braeden Marshall, along with former UCF running back Kam Ingram.
Also invited to the event were players from Florida State, Florida and Clemson.
Like Tabansi, Gurley grew up with an interest in video games.
“I’ve always wanted to know how EA Sports did it, how they created the games,” said Gurley, a redshirt senior defensive tackle who transferred from Eastern Kentucky. “I’ve always dreamed of being a part of something like that.”
That’s the type of passion that Clint Oldenburg hopes will eventually lead to a career opportunity for players like Tabansi and Gurley.
Oldenburg, who is the production director at EA Sports Madden NFL, knows firsthand what sort of experience an athlete can bring to the company.
He played offensive tackle at Colorado State before being selected by the New England Patriots in the fifth round of the 2007 draft. Following a five-year football career, Oldenburg applied for a job as a gameplay designer at EA Sports.
Oldenburg admits he had no idea what he was stepping into when he arrived at the company.
“All I knew was that I loved the sport. I wanted to find a career that kept me involved in football,” he said. “I was always playing games; that was my hobby. I had a curiosity itch to scratch to find out what it was like to make one of these games, and actually it worked out.”
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Fourteen years later, Oldenburg is among several former NFL, college and high school football players, as well as a former NFL coach, working at EA Sports.
“What we really value at EA is having really broad perspectives on our staff,” said Oldenburg. “We value all kinds of different perspectives because of how broad the perspectives of our audiences are and having an athlete perspective on our staff, which I can speak to from experience, really bumps up our core belief, which is authenticity.”
Players invited to the career tour event had the chance to witness up close what goes into creating video games like College Football 27 and Madden 27.
“They used the same technique that the film “Avatar” used in filming, so I was actually very interested in that. I actually recorded a scene and I just fell in love with it,” said Gurley.
Tabansi added: “The motion capture room, where they had like a bunch of different cameras around the ceiling and you put on this motion capture suit and do a bunch of actions. That was interesting to me.”
Both Gurley and Tabansi could see themselves pursuing careers in video-game development.
This was the second year that EA Sports held the career tour, and the first in an expanded capacity. The first year, only Florida players were invited to take part. Even so, Oldenburg remains excited about the potential from the event.
“If you asked me if we got just one of those guys to become a full-time employee after they graduate or after their NFL career ends, I would call that a win,” said Oldenburg. “So, one would be awesome and if we got even more great.”
Still, there is one question that inevitably comes up when Oldenburg speaks with college football and NFL players.
“Who’s the person responsible for rating players and how did they arrive at the conclusion that they arrived at?” Oldenburg said with a laugh.
Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: [email protected]. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.
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