EA Sports will hold a "Madden Gras" in New Orleans on August 10, the scheduled launch day for "Madden NFL 11," to celebrate the release of the venerable videogame title and the selection of Saints QB Drew Brees as the cover athlete for the game. The widely expected choice of Brees, officially announced this morning, arrived after a first-time fan vote. Specific elements for "Madden Gras" have not yet been finalized, but will be similar in scale to the "Madden-oliday" and "Maddenpalooza" events that have heralded releases of prior versions of the game. EA Sports VP/Marketing Tom Goedde: "Let your imagination run wild. It's going to be one heck of a party. That will be our big tentpole event, and something that will really involve the city of New Orleans." The now-set August 10 release date for the game also solidifies a shift back to a Tuesday release day for "Madden," after experimenting with a Friday date last year. The Friday move, designed in part to tie into a Steelers-Cardinals exhibition game and provide a more Hollywood-style opening game, ultimately made week-to-week sales tracking difficult as the entire industry is set up to monitor sales based on sales weeks starting on Tuesdays ( Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal ). COVER BOY : Brees said that he sees being selected to be on the cover of the game as "completely positive for himself, the Saints and the city of New Orleans." Brees: "Just the fact that so many people are talking about it, obviously it gets a lot of attention. And my thought is this is just another way to represent New Orleans and the Saints." Brees said that he was "especially honored" because the cover athlete was decided by fan voting for the first time ( NOLA.com, 4/22 ). He added, "Anytime you are given any kind of an honor voted on by the fans, that's who this game is for and the game is all about representing our fans. That certainly takes on a very special meaning with us because of the bond that we share with the city of New Orleans and the Who Dat Nation" ( USATODAY.com, 4/22 ). THE NEXT STAR OF LATE NIGHT? Brees Thursday night read CBS’ “Late Show” Top Ten list, which was entitled "Top Ten Features Of The New 'Madden NFL 11' Video Game." Holding a copy of the new game, CBS' David Letterman said the Madden franchise "has sold like 80 million copies." Letterman said he has "three teams that I support fully. I have the Indianapolis Colts because I'm from Indianapolis. I have the New York Giants because the brother of the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts is the brother of the quarterback for the New York Giants. What's his name? Toby Manning? Was it Opie Manning?" Letterman: "And then Drew Brees, who played his college ball for the Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Indiana" ( "Late Show," CBS, 4/23 ).
| 10) "You can play it on Xbox, Playstation, Wii and some microwave ovens." |
| 9) "It comes with a coupon for free ACL or MCL surgery." |
| 8) "Everyone's named 'Ochocinco.'" |
| 7) "Electronic pants let you feel every groin pull." |
| 6) "Between possessions, Peyton is shooting commercials." |
| 5) "In the last two minutes of the half, Donkey Kong throws barrels at you." |
| 4) "Whenever he drops a pass, Terrell Owens cries." (Video was aired of Owens crying at post-game press conference talking about Cowboys QB Tony Romo) |
| 3) "They boosted the gigabytes or pixels or some crazy stuff like that." |
| 2) "I guarantee playing this game will make you an NFL player within 3 months!" |
| 1) "I'm on the cover -- what more could you possibly need to know?" |
