For Army West Point athletes Jaxon Hammond and Miles Stewart, playing the new College Football 25 video game is like competing on the practice field – just a little less sweaty.

“We're really competitive as a team," Stewart said. "We have, like, dynasty mode with a bunch of people and franchises and people just, I'll walk to your room, 'let's play, let's hop on a game.' And we'll play.”

But playing the game is about more than just team bonding and trash talk.

For a lot of the athletes, they grew up playing the previous versions of these games. But in 2014, EA Sports was forced to stop producing them as a result of a lawsuit over the likeness of players in the game. Back then, EA didn't include player's names or faces, but did base their generic rosters on real-life rosters. Now, due to the NCAA's name, image and likeness (NIL) rules, players can profit off their names and jersey numbers, and appear in video games. But that's still a thrill to young athletes. 

“I was actually super happy," said Army cornerback Jaxon Hammond. "I didn't really get to figure I was in the game until some people, like, texted me and sent me screenshots from back home, telling me I was in the game.”

It’s a feeling shared by his teammate, Stewart, and athletes all over the country. They finally are able to play as themselves in a video game.

But what does it feel like to score a touchdown as yourself?

“Wow, that's me on the game," Stewart said. "And as a kid, back then, they didn't have names, just nameless faces scoring. But now, it's your name, or your friend's name, that's scoring. It's like, dang, you want that dap him up right after.”

With real football weeks away, the video game has taken a bit of a back seat. But they’ll find time to get a game in here or there and keep the competitive juices flowing.