Larry Brown Sports

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.

LeBron James has a higher player rating in the NBA 2K12 video game than Kobe Bryant, and naturally that has led to much discourse. Pasta Padre says the two had an even rating in NBA 2K11 (both had 97 out of 100). In NBA 2K12 (watch the awesome trailer here), LeBron received a 98 rating while Kobe Bryant received a 94.

Obviously these scores were determined by some people running the video game, but it reflects the changing mentality of most NBA fans. LeBron James is 26, shot the highest field goal percentage in his career, and he’s widely considered to be in the middle of his prime. Kobe on the other hand is 33 years old and beginning to slow down. He’s been bothered by knee injuries and he plays more of an outside game now compared to when he used to take it to the rack frequently.

Bryant still wins most head-to-head debates with LeBron because he has the championship rings while LeBron does not. However, the video game ratings reflect reality — LeBron is a better player now. And if you think these ratings don’t matter, read this J.R. Smith story and then get back to me.

For the record, Dwyane Wade received a 96 and Chris Bosh had an 80. Where Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Durant rank relative to LeBron is the better question.

You may be wondering what this story is doing on a sports site, but the reality is a lot of fans who enjoy reading about sports on the internet also enjoy playing video games. Therefore it is my duty to inform you that playing video games for an extending period of time can be hazardous to one’s health.

Take for instance the case of Chris Staniforth, a 20-year-old from England who died in May of a blood clot in his lungs. The coroner said his blood clot started in his leg and moved into his lungs, causing blockage. An autopsy showed that Staniforth suffered from a condition called deep vein thrombosis which can be triggered by sitting in one position for a long period of time.

Staniforth is described as an Xbox addict who used to have marathon gaming sessions where he played for up to 12 hours at a time. I’m not a gamer nor have I been most of my life, but we’ve all been there before. Freshman year, Dykstra Hall, yeah, my roomie Rey and I had a nice 36-hour Madden bender where we were wired on cans of Amp and dining hall food. It wasn’t pretty, but it was fun.

The bottom line is everything should be done in moderation and dammit, if you can’t feel your leg because of a blood clot, it’s probably time to put down the controller and head outside. Now excuse me while I get back to the couch to continue blogging.

Thanks to I am a GM for the link

Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay was a guest on The Jim Rome Show Tuesday and talked about a video game grudge match he had scheduled with Mavs guard Jason Terry. Gay and Terry squared off in Call of Duty: Black Ops at Treyarch Studios later on Tuesday, but before that Gay revealed what type of player he is in the popular multi-player shooting game.

“I’m one of those guys that just hides,” Gay told Rome. “Everyone just runs around so I can shoot ‘em.”

Though Rome isn’t much of a video gamer, he called Gay out for his boring gaming style known as “camping.” According to the unimpeachable source that is Urban Dictionary, being a camper is “Usually the sign of a bad player who thinks they are the best.”

Later in the show, Nationals reliever Drew Storen, who was an in-studio guest, called out Gay for his refusal to engage during the game.

Read The Rest of the Story…

The folks at EA Sports simulate the NHL season each year using their NHL 11 video game, and the video game correctly predicted a Canucks-Bruins Stanley Cup Finals. The simulations occurred in October and they also correctly predicted that the Canucks would win the Presidents’ Trophy for the best record in the League.

Since the playoffs began, they have simulated the outcome of all 14 playoff series and got 13 correct. The only simulation that came out wrong was the Red Wings-Sharks series won by San Jose in seven games. The simulation had Detroit winning in seven.

EA’s simulation had the Canucks winning the Cup in seven games over the Bruins back in October, but they plan to re-run the simulation on Monday using updated information. Last year they correctly predicted the Blackhawks would win the Cup. As a Bruins fan, I’m just hoping the system picks Boston. If that doesn’t happen, then the Bruins will just have to prove the system wrong.

ESPN announced Wednesday that Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis beat Michael Vick to win the cover of the Madden NFL 12 video game. Even though we covered Hillis’ run to the semis, we didn’t see him emerging from the pack.

Maybe we should have.

It probably didn’t hurt Hillis that Packers fans voted against Aaron Rodgers because they didn’t want him to suffer the curse. But how did Hillis defeat the ever popular Michael Vick? There is only one possible answer: he ran with the white running back mystique.

Cleveland Browns fans are numerous and passionate, but they can’t possibly overpower every other fan base in the NFL. And I don’t believe some sort of Rory Fitzpatrick scheme was at work either. This was about one thing — race. America loves white running backs and this is confirmation. Here’s more on the matter if you’re interested.