Game On!
by George Diaz
Clint Oldenburg’s National Football League career didn’t have any ESPN SportsCenter highlights.
He lasted five seasons as an offensive lineman, playing for six teams in five years in a career marked by numerous injuries. The typical career span for an NFL player is 3.3 years.
Clint played his last game in August 2011, when he was only 27. He then faced the same crossroads as any NFL player out of a job: What’s next?
When Worlds Collide
Serendipity kicked in when Clint’s brother showed him an ad from EA Sports, the division of Electronic Arts that produces sports video games. The company, with its game development then based in Maitland, was offering a 16-week internship for two former college players to help design the NCAA Football video game. Clint applied and got the job.
Fast-forward to today: Clint, now 42, has a resume with much more star power. Several months ago, he was promoted to a producer/head of production role for NFL Madden, one of the most iconic sports video games in history.
Clint lives in a world where fantasy meets reality. He helps create digital versions of real-life football stars for the NFL Madden franchise, which launched in 1988 and has been a mainstay in the Top 10 list of most popular video games for decades.
The proverbial door that closed in 2011 when he was cut by the Washington Redskins opened a window two years later at EA Sports, leading to a far different outcome. Clint’s degree in technical journalism from Colorado State University came into play in his new job.
“I had to technically write breakdown football in a way an engineer could understand,” says Clint, a longtime resident of Wekiva Springs who now lives in Apopka. “I was an effective communicator. Not only could I write, but I could also speak, I could collaborate, I could get a sense of what they needed from me.”
As the Madden game keeps evolving, technical details are critically important. The game has 56 rating markers for all NFL players, which spits out a rating score from 0 to 99.
“There’s more than one NFL team that has told me personally that they’re using Madden ratings as part of their player evaluation,” says Clint.
The Man, the Myth, the Legend
Clint had the opportunity to meet legendary NFL coach John Madden – the game’s namesake – at Madden’s studio in California six times through the years.
“We had two reviews with him every year,” recalls Clint. “We’d go out before the season and pitch him on what we were going to build. And then we’d go out again in the fall, which was the best trip.”
During the fall meetings, John would give Clint and the other game developers a review on what they had delivered. Then they would spend the rest of the day at the studio, watching the games along the 16 TVs on John’s studio wall and enjoying a smorgasbord of food.
Clint’s successful transition from player to EA Sports executive includes another serendipitous twist. Shawnna Adamson was the program manager who had placed the internship ad that drew Clint to the company. She was also his initial interviewer before he was hired.
The company’s after-work group gatherings at Sam Snead’s restaurant in Maitland sparked something more than friendship between Clint and Shawnna. They married in 2014 and have two sons, Cameron (9) and Cooper (7).
Cheers to That
More recently, Clint added another job title to his growing resume: bar owner. He and business partners Darryl Richardson and Brad Pascarella opened Three Odd Guys Brewing in Longwood in September 2025, a bar that features a selection of craft beers along with a neighborhood vibe.
“At my age, I’m not going to be able to make video games forever,” says Clint. “When I am 50 or so, what am I going to be doing then? Hopefully I will be brewing beers right here.”
After his stint in the NFL, Clint has found success with a second career in the gaming world. Clint’s third career may very well prove to be his own version of Cheers. No one will blame him if he raises a glass of beer in his own honor.