Are video games making athletes better?

Sports video games have been around for more than three decades, getting more technically advanced and accurate with each passing year, to the point now where there is little difference between the skills and strategies used by pro coaches and athletes and their on-screen counterparts.

With this increased level of detail, do the current crop of pro athletes, and those kids hoping to join their ranks, have an advantage over old-timers thanks to video game sports providing hours of virtual practice?

The latest issue of Wired just landed in my mailbox (cover story: The New Industrial Revolution), and in it is a great story by Chris Suellentrop about this very subject. Suellentrop focuses primarily on football, using this past season's amazing play by Denver Broncos' Brandon Stokley (see video after the jump), who caught a deflection with just seconds left in the game, then ran along the touchdown line to run down the clock. It was move straight out of Madden NFL, as Stokley proudly admits. The Wired piece isn't online yet, so do yourself a favour and pick up the mag off the newstand.

Obviously football, with its volumes of playbooks and set stop-and-start play action is ripe for this sort of analysis. But do athletes in other sports feel they gain an edge in the cerebral portion of their sport, thanks to video games?