Madden NFL 2005

There are 281 total Madden Cards this time around. Player cards give that player a boost for a specified amount of time (based on the type of card--bronze, silver or gold). Playing a Coach card boosts your team awareness for a specified amount of time. Stadium Cards unlock stadia for exhibition mode. Historic Team cards open those squads for exhibition, and Cheerleader/Pump Up Crowd Cards give your team a temporary boost. Here are the card categories, and how to gain the locked Cards within each:

Player Cards: #1-155
The following cards are unlocked by completing Mini-Camp challenges (the rest can be gotten by purchasing packs of Cards with Tokens):

#2: Unlock by getting gold in the All-Madden Chase and Tackle drill.
#30: Unlock by getting gold in the All-Madden Coffin Corner drill.
#38: Unlock by getting gold in the All-Madden Ground Attack drill.
#42: Unlock by getting gold in the All-Madden Precision Passing drill.
#52: Unlock by getting gold in the All-Madden Swat Ball drill.
#99: Unlock by getting gold in the All-Madden Trench Fight drill.
#104: Unlock by getting gold in the All-Madden Clutch Kicking drill.
#147: Unlock by getting gold in the All-Madden Pocket Presence drill.

Coach Cards #156-187
These Cards, when used, raise your team's awareness for a specified amount of time.

Cheat Cards #188-219
Cheat Cards, when played, produce special game conditions for a specific amount of time, based on whether they are Bronze, Silver or Gold. Certain ones need to be unlock via Mini-Camp drills. They are:

#195: Unlock by getting gold in the Ground Attack drill.
#197: Unlock by getting gold in the Clutch Kicking drill.
#199: Unlock by getting gold in the Swat Ball drill.
#208: Unlock by getting gold in the Pocket Presence drill.
#209: Unlock by getting gold in the Trench Fight drill.
#210: Unlock by getting gold in the Precision Passing drill.
#211: Unlock by getting gold in the Coffin Corner drill.

Stadium Cards: #220-224
Unlock these Cards, and you'll unlock the stadiums, and make them available for exhibition games.

Historic Team Cards: #225-249
Unlock these Cards to make the Historic Teams available at the team select screen.

Cheerleader/Pump Up Crowd Cards: #250-281
These are unlocked by completing each team's Situation in Mini-Camp mode, with the exception of these teams:

#251: Cincinatti Bengals
#260: Dallas Cowboys
#264: San Francisco 49ers
#273: St. Louis Rams

Get a gold rank in any event on the All Pro, Pro and Rookie levels in mini-camp mode.

Complete a challenge in Mini-Camp to open that same skill challenge on the higher difficulty setting.

This trick will allow you to sign any player, no matter how big their default salary is, to a three year low-salary contract. You must do this before starting a franchise. First, edit the player's attributes from whatever they are currently down so that their overall rating is exactly 75. Depending on the position, you should be able to achieve this by simply lowering one or sometimes two of their attributes. Make sure to make a note what the original rating was so you can store the value later. Once all players you are editing are at an overall rating of 75, release the players to free agency. After releasing each player (you may have to sign some "no-name" players to your roster to maintain roster requirements, but you can release those temporary players later), back out of the roster management screen to the main menu. Choose the option to "Continue without saving" (this may not be necessary). Reenter the roster management screen and select "Free Agents." Go to whichever team you want to sign the players to and start looking for your players. You should notice that their new requested salaries and contract lengths will be for three years at a very low salary (depending on the position). Once you have signed all of your players back (and released the temporary players), go back to editing the players and return them to the original ratings. Note: According to the manual, your players will become upset if they feel they are being underpaid for how good they are performing, you will more than likely have to re-sign some contracts throughout the year, but with the cap room you will save.