Year in and year out, most of us buy our sports titles and immediately jump into online play or a play now game, something to get us to the action on the field. Once that primeval instinct is satisfied, we move on to the game’s franchise mode which is where the real fun begins.

As we play through the franchise mode, we begin to find players that are our unlikely heroes. Players like Artose Pinner become absolute monsters in your dynasty while in almost any other player’s Madden franchise he would do nothing more than take up a roster spot.  Some of these guys perform so well for you that you go out of your way to get him onto your team for the longer running franchises.

Artose is probably the best example for me of a player whose performance transcended his ratings to became a superstar in my system, but what is it that draws my loyalty in to at least give him a shot each year?

Any number of factors can play into the decision to use a player. The biggest one is of course because he’s a favorite of yours in real life. Believe me when I say that this is by far the most unmatched decider in an attempt to use a player consistently across many franchises.

I look back at my time with games like EA’s NHL series and the one player that sticks out as a player I always tried to play with despite his not being rated well was Detroit Red Wings player Darren McCarty. He was never the shining superstar in any way by how he was rated, but the desire to take him to another level was always there.

But favorite players aside, there has to be more than just that. To really understand what else can make a player become an in-game favorite, we can take a look back at the MaddenMania forums and the Franchise ran by DJ Rhude, the New York Castoffs.

For those who never read Rhude’s franchise reports, he would use Madden to create a team of all players rated 70 overall or lower. From there, he would attempt to bring the team into prominence through the draft and getting his players experience.

Two players from his original team stick out as players who would never see the light of day in most anybody’s franchises but became instant signings each time the franchise was played in the years following. Those players were starting quarterback Jesse Palmer and starting running back Rod “He Hate Me” Smart.

Other than the fact that by the end of their careers in the first running of the famed franchise they were both rated in the 90s aside, what caused them to become favorites?

Despite their faults, one thing that made them into such amazing players was their consistency. No I don’t mean in-game performance, if that was the case, neither would have lasted a single game.

Consistency of use and the willingness to stick with a certain player adds to the player’s familiarity. Of course, with familiarity comes improved performance. This give and take relationship goes a long way to seeing an attachment form with a player whose position with a team would otherwise have gone no farther than bench warmer.

Ultimately, it all boils down to loyalty. No matter how you establish it, you will invariably find a player in any sports game you play that you gain an unusual loyalty to. Be it that it's a favorite player in real-life or just someone in the game who outperforms expectations, you usually will find some unlikely star. How you use him is up to you, but just remember, once you find that special player do not forget about him.

So what about your underdog stories? Who have you found to be a star despite the fact that otherwise the player would have been a bench warmer? Who was your Artose Pinner or Darren McCarty?