Larry Brown Sports

The concept of Tebowing may have fizzled out quickly over the past several months, but those who were sitting around waiting for it to come back are in luck. If there is any platform with the power to rescue what was once the most popular fad in sports, it’s the Madden NFL video game series. According to Madden NFL creative director Michael Young, Madden 13 will honor Tim Tebow with his signature move.

“Tebowing is in for #madden13,” Young wrote on his Twitter account Friday.

As of last month, Tebow’s lawyers were battling with the website Tebowing.com over trademark issues. My guess is the creators of Madden have permission to use it or will refrain from calling it “Tebowing” in the game, but you never know. Since the EA Sports people always seem to take authenticity very seriously, they have no choice. Tebow is obviously going to be featured in the game and you can’t show a full game of Tebow without him dropping to a knee on the sidelines before a game or in a prayer circle after it. Real is real.

H/T NFL.com
Photo credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE

Calvin Johnson is getting the recognition and notoriety a player of his caliber deserves, but maybe it’s not the kind he should want.

The Lions receiver won the voting to appear on the Madden ’13 video game cover. He topped Panthers quarterback Cam Newton with 52% of the 651,790 votes cast in the finals.

The voting was done as a 32-player tournament where each NFL team had one representative. Johnson beat Dwayne Bowe 92%-8% in the first round, Arian Foster 73%-27% in the second round, Rob Gronkowski 63%-37% in the third round, Aaron Rodgers 67%-33% in the semifinals, and Newton 52%-48% in the finals.

The announcement was made on ESPN’s “SportsNation” show on Wednesday afternoon, where both finalists said they didn’t believe in the infamous “Madden Curse.” Last year’s cover winner, Peyton Hillis, also said he didn’t believe in the curse, but that was before he had an abysmal season for the Browns, which changed his mind.

Last week, Lions receiver Nate Burleson said he was going to vote for Calvin because he thinks his teammate can break the curse. Lions fans better hope that is the case. Given the history of the cover curse, I would be worried.

Photo Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

If Calvin Johnson winds up winning the Madden cover vote and suffers an injury next season, Lions fans may blame more than just the Madden jinx. Those who are particularly superstitious could take aim at Nate Burleson. Burleson, who claims to be a big Madden fan, admitted to Mlive.com that he believes in the Madden cover curse. Despite that, he says he is still going to vote for his fellow receiver.

“Yeah, I’m going to vote for him,” Burleson said before adding that he believes enough players have suffered injuries to legitimize the curse. “I’d love to see my guy on the cover of Madden. I’m a big Madden fan. … If any guy can break the curse it’s Calvin. This dude is a monster. He’s strong enough to break tackles, so he can break a curse.”

Johnson is one of four finalists and is currently matched up against Aaron Rodgers in the semifinals. As for being enough of a beast to break the curse, Peyton Hillis looked like just that coming off his monster season in 2010. Injuries then derailed his 2011 season and Hillis became a believer.

So if you’re one of those people who is superstitious enough to wear the same socks and underwear every Sunday of the NFL season, you can now thank EA Sports and Burleson if Megatron misses any time in 2012. Falling victim to a jinx is one thing, but Burleson’s decision to add a jinx on top of a jinx could spell trouble for Detroit. Or maybe his jinx will jinx the jinx and all will be well. No one really knows how these things work.

Photo credit: Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

At this point I’m starting to think EA Sports should just end the Madden cover vote and hand the award to Rob Gronkowski. Whether he is the most deserving or not, it’s become pretty clear that nobody in the NFL wants to be on the cover of Madden ’13 worse than Gronk. In fact, it’s beginning to look like the Patriots tight end has never wanted anything this badly in his life.

Last month we showed you Gronk and his brothers acting like meatheads as a part of Rob’s Madden cover campaign. Gronk has managed to reach the final eight in the voting, where he is now taking on Calvin Johnson. Megatron is one of the most popular players in the NFL, so this could be Gronk’s toughest test yet. Considering he spiked and shattered a Megatron toy he was “playing against” in Madden, I’m guessing Gronk understands the urgency of the situation.

But the best part of all has to be the decorations in Gronk’s lair. Fathead of himself on the wall? Check. Framed No. 87 jersey over in the corner? Check. Completely blank walls aside from those two things? Check.

Rob Gronkowski is a finalist to be on the cover of Madden ’13 this summer. After the season he had, that should surprise no one. Gronk Nation was infectious this past season to say the least. Whether it’s spiking a puck at a minor league hockey game or dancing on a torn up ankle after a Super Bowl loss, Gronk goes hard no matter what he does. He was already the perfect candidate for the cover of one of the best sports games in the world, but this video should put him right over the top. Teammate Wes Welker is a finalist as well, but does he stand a chance with the masterpiece the Gronk brothers put together to campaign for Rob?

“Hard workers at all times. Lets go bro! Doing curls! Busted ankle! Cast on it! It don’t stop me! … Just getting jacked at all times, going crazy. Even check out my brothers!”

How do you compete with that? You don’t. You just don’t. Madden curse? What Madden curse?

Thanks to Barstool Sports for the video

Only Cubs fans truly know how this commercial makes Cubs fan feel. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my best guess is it brings out extremely mixed emotions. On one hand, the creators of the ad did a tremendous job of making it seem authentic. You really get the impression that this is what the streets of Chicago would look like if the Cubs broke their 104-year World Series drought. That being said, it’s not real. Does that mean it simply adds to the pain?

Whatever the case, the folks at MLB 12: The Show did a fantastic job with the commercial in my opinion. That’s about as authentic as it gets. I almost cried when that old guy cut his beard off. Anytime you can make people laugh and cry in a one-minute span, you’ve done something right.

Fist pound to Big League Stew for passing the video along

You know what they say: You never know if you’re going to like your new life until you see it in a video game. Prince Fielder can appreciate that, which is why he had to make a little gaming adjustment when he signed his new $214 million contract with the Tigers a few weeks ago. According to MLive.com, Fielder recently traded himself from the Milwaukee to Detroit in MLB 11 The Show.

Some Detroit Tigers followers have said having Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder hitting back-to-back seems more like something from a video game than reality.

Fielder wanted an early glance at what it might be like, too. So he recently traded his virtual self from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Tigers.

“I just did that at home,” he said. “Me and my boys, we just traded me over. It’s MLB11, but I was on the Brewers, so we just had to make a trade.

Doesn’t this dude have his system hooked up to the internet? That’s what updating rosters is for. It’s one thing if he made a fair trade, but I’m guessing Prince turned on the “accept all trades” setting and shafted the Brew Crew.

As for the damage Fielder and Miguel Cabrera could do hitting back-to-back, video game numbers could very well be on the horizon. The only thing that might take more abuse than the opposing pitchers that have to face these two is the buffet spread in the locker room after the games — assuming there’s a vegan section.

For the price of $10,000, one lucky person may win an auction to become an actual character in the next edition of the Madden NFL video game.

Charity Buzz is currently running an auction that ends Thursday at 4pm EST. The winning bidder will be able to create a character that will be included in the Madden NFL 13 video game.

The winner will be able to choose the character’s name, height, weight, age, skin tone, hair color/length, accessories (visors/wristbands) and college. They will also be able to specify what type of attributes the player will have.

The bidding began at $1,500 but did not meet its reserve price of $9,999.00, so it went back on the auction block. Someone bid $10,000 last Wednesday morning and is the current leader. The proceeds will benefit ACLU of Southern California.

In case you’re unsure how big of a deal having a Madden character is, allow me to explain. Some NFL players use the video game to scout opponents. Others bet mortgage payments on the game. One even threatened to boycott the game because his ratings were too low. Yeah, this is a big deal.

Let’s just hope the winning bidder doesn’t suffer from the infamous Madden Curse.

Louisville lost at home to Pitt Saturday 21-14, and coach Charlie Strong believes his players were not properly focused on the game because they were too concerned with the new video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released last Tuesday and reportedly generated over $400 million in sales in its first 24 hours.

Strong had to pull his players off the field during pregame warmups to help their focus. He also described his players as not very mature after the game.

During his Monday press conference, Strong continued to rant about the video game. The Courier-Journal said Strong believed “his players seemed to be more enthused about playing Call to Duty than preparing for Pittsburgh.”

Before we start going off on the players, put yourself in their position. These are college boys aged 18-22. They like video games, hanging out, and partying. They’re not professionals, and some of them are irresponsible. They’re kids.

When I was in college, I made some irresponsible decisions too. My roommate and I once went on a 36-hour Madden bender freshman year. They may have used poor judgment, but how many of us can say we haven’t done the same thing?

Chest bump to Deadspin

Many player ratings for the popular basketball video game NBA 2K12 were revealed Tuesday. We already knew that LeBron James was ranked higher than Kobe Bryant, but we didn’t know that reigning Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki got the shaft.

Pasta Padre posted the ratings for any player who got higher than an 80. It was disturbing how far down the list one had to go before finding Dirk.

Dirk Nowitzki was tied for 14th in the ratings. He received an 85, tying him with Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala, Manu Ginobili, and Rajon Rondo. Rudy Gay and Pau Gasol were somehow rated higher than Dirk.

The reasoning for Dirk’s low score makes little sense.

“Our overall rating formulas are position specific, weighting attributes that are more relevant for that type of player. For example, passing and speed are weighted more for point guards, where rebounding and shot blocking are factored heavily for centers,” the game’s development team told Ball Don’t Lie.

Sounds like a pretty poor reason, right? All it would take is one look at the list to know there’s something wrong with the system. How can you possible have Rudy Gay rated higher than Dirk Nowitzki? I don’t care what adjustment they make, but some tweaking is needed for the ratings to reflect reality. Dirk Nowitzki is a top-five player in the NBA and should be rated that way based on any metric.