Early on Tuesday morning at midnight, millions of NFL fans across the United States disregarded sleep in favor of traveling to their local video game store to purchase the very latest game in EA Sports' Madden series, "Madden NFL 16."
In this year's game, fans are buzzing about features such as better graphics, player spotlights and brand new quarterback mechanics.
But Madden season isn't solely for fans of the NFL.
Chiefs running back De'Anthony Thomas is among those Kansas City Chiefs looking forward to getting his hands on the much sought after game.
"It's a great day," Thomas said. "Madden gets everybody excited. The last Madden started to get old. Everybody is looking for something new now."
When asked about whether he preferred to play online or offline, Thomas quickly said online, as he likes being able to get his personal ranking up.
His teammate, Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos, happens to be in quite a different boat.
As became public knowledge last year, he shares a deeper history with the video game.
"It's cool because that's how I learned the game [of football] actually," he said. "In high school, my buddies convinced me to try out for football and be a kicker. Once I saw that I liked kicking the ball, I needed to learn the game, so I could understand what was going on. I went out and bought a Madden game."
That was 2006.
Now, in 2015, with high school, four years of college football and a year of NFL experience under his belt, the whole Madden experience has changed for him completely.
"One thing that's really cool is you don't have to create your player anymore. Also, I'm definitely the smallest player in the game, so it's a bit funny to watch myself tiny compared to the other guys."
Size aside, Santos has put together an impressive preseason to date. In two games, he has yet to miss an extra point, which is now 33 yards, and he is 2 for 2 on field goals.
He's come a long road from a training camp battle last year, when whether or not he would win the starting role and even be in the game was in question.
This year, there were no doubts.
"Every kid, you dream of being in the game, so now I'm finally in the game," he said.
