When PlayStation and Xbox was young, both Sony and Microsoft had a pretty impressive set of sports games of their own, including hockey, American football, and basketball. But something they didn't do was football. And it seems like there is a perfectly good explanation for this.
It turns out Microsoft was actually working on a football game as well, but it was cancelled as a demand from EA as they didn't want any competition. One of the reasons that is often mentioned as to why the Dreamcast never became a commercial success is the fact that EA never supported it. This meant Dreamcast never got the important sports games the casual audiences crave.
And now the former Microsoft developer Garrett Young reveals to the Kiwi Talkz podcast, that Microsoft desperately wanted to make sure they got EA's support. Therefore they had to sign a deal that prohibited Microsoft from making soccer games for Xbox. The first-party football title that was in development was ultimately cancelled, and as far as we know, it has never been shown, so we don't know how far along in development it was.
It should be added that EA operates similarly to this day and tries to buy exclusive rights to all major sports organisations to make sure no one can threaten their sports empire. This makes it possible for EA to have a soft monopoly, and can release new fully priced titles each year with very little changes - as there is virtually no competition.
Thanks, ComicBook.com.