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Madden Cover Stars Reveal Their Madden Betting Habits, Deny Curse At EA Event
June 25, 2008
Electronic Arts hosted a mini-bash-slash-press conference at Touch night club last night to roll out Madden NFL 09 and celebrate the 20th year of the franchise. Past cover athletes Daunte Culpepper (2002), Marshall Faulk (2003), Ray Lewis (2005), Shaun Alexander (2007) and Vince Young (2008) were on hand for an EA-led roundtable followed up with a scramble to grab the players for individual interviews. The players ran through some of their favorite Madden features before delving into what everyone really wants to know: what does a guy with a multi-million dollar contract bet over a single game.
Culpepper admitted, “I won and lost a few mortgage payments on a game of Madden.” He also mentioned that he had to get better after he notched his cover. “When people see you on Madden, they assume that you’re the best. I got challenged a lot more when I got the cover.” The biggest bet Marshall Faulk ever had to pay out over losing a game involved letting a free agent drive his Bentley for a month. Instead of playing for money Ray Lewis would rather bet on-demand push ups, waiting to cash them in at restaurants and parking lots. Lewis also revealed a softer side saying he wished there was more Phil Collins music included on the in-game soundtrack. And yes, he was smiling during that last part.
Shaun Alexander threw out an interesting perspective on making the cover. “Until I got the cover it was like some of my family really didn’t know I was any good at football. Coming off a Super Bowl, college All-Americans, it wasn’t until my cousin saw me on the cover of Madden that he said, ‘Hey, you must be pretty good.’” Alexander also mentioned one of the best parts to his time on the cover was receiving a shipment of Madden 07 copies and passing them out to teammates at training camp.
Vince Young stayed pretty quiet (and kept his shades on all night) but he did mention his favorite part of the new game: the quality graphics of “the stadiums and grass.” Hey, give him a little more time with the title. Last night was probably the first time he saw it, plus he had to name his favorite aspect of Madden last. Despite the different opinions on who had the best cover every player there denied the existence of a Madden Curse. They did, however, admit that notching a cover gives players on the other side of the ball an added incentive to find them on the field in real games. Alexander blamed the rash of injuries to cover athletes on other players rather than a supposed Curse saying, “Sometimes you run into knuckleheads like Ray here that like to get grimy. Sometimes you win some, sometime you lose.” Brett Favre wasn’t on hand for the party but Marshall Faulk said he could prove them wrong if something happened specifically, “If he gets hurt riding his longboard we’ll know.”
The PlayStation models show off the new limited edition Madden 09 PSP.
Stay tuned for our on-camera interviews with Culpepper, Alexander, and Lewis. We had a shot at Marshall Faulk till some dude from CBS spilled Corona all over his pants.
