EA Sports Debuts Premium Pass - Moving Toward Subscriptions?

Thanks to GameInformer for its story discussing EA Sports' announcement of a new Premium Pass service for Madden NFL 2005 players. Although it's explained that "This package of paid subscription-level features will be available [on the PS2 and Xbox Live] at no cost to Madden NFL 2005 owners, as long as the user enters their credit card number, by way of sponsorship by Dodge", there's some speculation that subsequent Madden seasons will include a higher-tier, optional fee, especially as "If you do not have a credit card, you can still sign up for the EA Sports Premium Pass with a PayPal account, or Telecheck for $19.95." In the meantime, this extra service means: "Players who sign up for the EA Sports Premium Pass receive a boost to their online Reputation Rating, which is a publicly visible indicator that rewards and penalizes players for following EA Sports Fair Play rules", as well as receiving: "Name in lights... personalized career pages... members only medals [and forthcoming] Web leagues [and] enhanced Web tournaments." Update: 08/06 17:47 GMT by S : Game Informer now has an interview with EA's Chip Lange which helps clarify the subscription-related shenanigans.

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Disclaimer:It's been a while since I played Madden

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Madden University: More Madden online tips and hints than players knew existed can be found here... Madden University will be updated weekly with the latest online strategies and host various columns from well known community luminaries.

The Importance of Going long
By John Johnson, Madden U. luminary

First and ten. 3rd and long. 2nd and short. What do these seemingly different situations share in common? The quarterback always gets the ball before anyone else. Why hand off to the running back for another tedious 4 downs, when you can bomb to the endzone on first and ten from the 20, right after the kickoff?
Go long. Remember, if you've got a 25% chance to complete the pass, and you've got four downs, why bother with minutae?

This has been yet another "Hard-core" strategy, that you just can't find on the Gamefaqs message board.