When I chided him for seeding Detroitâs all-galaxy receiver Calvin Johnson at No. 6 in the Madden cover contest, Anthony Stevenson didnât back down. âOK, who is it seeded above him that you would replace?â he asked.
My answer? All of âem.
Megatron validated my faith in him, not as a sleeper pick, but the odds-on favorite to win out when he rolled into the final round of this contest with a crushing victory over the Green Bay Packersâ Aaron Rodgers. And two months after offering up a field of 64 playersâone of them a punterâfor consideration, Madden has two candidates that recall the days when the leagueâs No. 1 stud was a regular guest on the front of the game.
Johnson, probably the best receiver in the league coming into his sixth year, will face Cam Newton, the Carolina Panther whose debut year rewrote expectations for rookie quarterbacks. As sure as someone wearing light blue and a silver helmet will make the front, Madden will be represented by one of the NFLâs true up-and-comers and best players.
âThe cover vote represents a snapshot look at the NFL, ideally,â Stevenson, the gameâs director of marketing, said to me this morning. âItâs really fantastic, because when we look back at this time, weâll know, âWow, there were really some young, great players in this league. The Mannings and Tom Brady were around, but this is the time the next generation was coming in and dominating.â
More than 20 million votes have been cast in the cover contest, which is up from the nearly 13 million cast last year, although it had a field of 32, not 64, and did not have the play-in round added this year. Still Stevenson is delighted by the response, especially considering the play-in was voted entirely on Facebook. (The current rounds of voting have been done through ESPNâs SportsNation web site.)
The winner will be announced a week from today, April 25, on SportsNation, which broadcasts at 5 p.m. EDT.
Madden has two candidates that recall the days when the leagueâs stud held the front of the game.
Stevenson thinks the final pairing is a total tossup, and insists heâs not saying that just to remain neutral in a process heâs overseen. âWhen you look at Calvin Johnson, the Lions are the new Saints, right?â he said. âDetroit is a feel-good city, theyâve been hit hard in the economy and theyâre coming back, the Lions, after going 0-16âand Calvin was a part of thatâthey get [Matt] Stafford and [Ndamukong] Suh and [Nick] Fairley, and now are what people feel like is a playoff or even Super Bowl contender.
âI have no vested interest in either candidate, but who am I rooting for?â Stevenson pondered. âAll things being equal, Iâm rooting for Detroit. We saw this play out the same way in Cleveland a year ago.â
Thatâs when the Brownsâ famously loyal fans got out the vote for the eventual Madden 12 cover star, running back Peyton Hillis, a kind of underdog, everyman representative from a losing team. He defeated Michael Vick in the final round, an unorthodox pairing of candidates that Iâm not sure EA Sports would have considered in the days when its marketers alone chose the cover. Voters last year may not have really grasped what was being left up to them, too.
Now, it feels like voters understand theyâre in charge of, as I have always called it, sports video gamingâs Wheaties box. And with Cam Newton, theyâve given Stevenson another option who can sell a lot of product himself.
âThe advantage Cam has is heâs the quarterback, and he won a national championship at Auburn, which has a huge fan base,â Stevenson said. âCam also won a lot of fantasy leagues for a lot of people who drafted him late or picked him up off waivers. But when you look back at the Madden cover, one position really stands out, and itâs quarterback.â
It didnât help Aaron Rodgers, arguably the best quarterback in the tournament. But thatâs probably because, again, superstitious Packer fans didnât want their meal ticket breaking his collarbone in week 5 thanks to the mythological âMadden Curse,â that befalls the starsâthough it didnât for Drew Brees in 2010 or Larry Fitzgerald in 2009.
âCalvin absolutely destroyed Rodgers in that matchup,â Stevenson said. âPacker fans, you know, they live in a small town where it is all about their team, and they donât risk anything. Itâs no joke, [the cover curse] is a real issue for those guys. For the Lions and Panther fans, it doesnât seem to affect them as much. I think the voting will be pretty clean.â
For his part, Stevenson said he liked Arian Foster, the Houston Texans running back who, just like Johnson and Newton, is of that all-Pro mold, and top league story, that defined cover athletes like Vick in 2003, Shaun Alexander in 2007 and Vince Young 2008. Rob Gronkowski âfrom a sheer entertainment standpoint,â also would have been a great representative, Stevenson said. The Patriots tight end filmed a bunch of comedy videos trying to rally support.
https://deadspin.com/rob-gronkowski-filmed-himself-spiking-a-megatron-doll-i-5900318
But, yeah, you know, both of those guys lost to my guy: Megatron, whom I called, before the field was even announced, âa solid favorite to win it all.â I just didnât think EA Sports had someone of his wattage lined up at the time. Give them their due, they did.
