Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice and Adrian Peterson Dominate Second Round,
Third Round Voting Now Open at ESPN.com/MaddenVote

March 27, 2013 – Today ESPN SportsNation revealed second-round results and third-round matchups for the Madden NFL 25 Cover Vote. Voting totals are nearing the 30 million mark as fans come out in droves to support their favorite Old School and New School players, and a handful of dominant performers have emerged. Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice and Adrian Peterson continue to roll through the competition, with each again carrying over 90 percent of the vote in their respective matchups.

Other key matchups saw Ray Lewis defeat LaDainian Tomlinson, Russell Wilson blow by Von Miller and Rob Gronkowski successfully escaping Revis Island. Also, in a nail-biting finish, Michael Strahan managed to squeak by Kurt Warner. Round two saw over 7.8 million votes, and total votes for the campaign have now reached 29.1 million overall, almost ten million more than last year’s vote total for the entire campaign.

These most recent results set the stage for some incredible contests in Round 3, with Joe Montana taking on Dan Marino in a battle pitting Super Bowl rings against all-time records, while former Cowboys teammates Troy Aikman and Deion Sanders will attempt to put the offense vs. defense debate to rest. In the New School bracket, rookie sensations Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson will face-off, with the winner taking on either Colin Kaepernick or Arian Foster in the semi-finals.

Voting for the next round is now open and will continue through Wednesday, April 3. Fans are invited to cast their votes at ESPN.com/MaddenVote through their PC or mobile devices.  For the chance to “Maximize” votes, ESPN and Madden NFL 25 have collaborated with Pepsi MAX to promote Twitter live voting every Tuesday throughout the Madden Cover Vote campaign, where tweets with each player’s respective Cover Vote hashtag will count as two votes.  Double votes ends at midnight ET each Tuesday.

Embraced by fans and honored by critics for 25 years, Madden NFL is known as the NFL’s “33rd Franchise” due to its authentic gameplay, the development team’s unparalleled access to NFL resources and its prominent place in NFL culture.

Madden NFL 25 is developed in Orlando, Florida by EA Tiburon and will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system for $59.99 and can be preordered at GameStop. To learn more about Madden NFL 25, visit http://www.easports.com/madden-nfl. Fans are also invited to become a Madden Insider for exclusive information on Facebook including the latest news, original content and more for Madden NFL 25.

All player participation has been facilitated by National Football League Players Incorporated, the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA).

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Presentation: The first change a loyal Madden gamer will notice is the vastly different presentation style. EA Sports has changed the game introductions, on-screen graphics, and commentators to reflect what fans see on a CBS broadcast. Fans will recognize the voices of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms as they ramble about nothing, just like a real NFL game.

Physics engine: EA has incorporated a new physics engine called “Infinity” into the new version of Madden. While that sounds fancy, the end result is just that player’s run into one another in more realistic and various ways. If you’ve played Madden in the past, you know that there are usually a finite number of different ways that players hit one another. The idea behind the new Infinity Engine is to make it so that’s no longer true, meaning that the gameplay will look and feel more natural. There are also 25 new pass trajectories, giving the player-controlled quarterback more options for how to deliver a ball to his receiver.

Connected Career: This year’s Madden comes with a new type of game mode called “Connected Career.” Basically, this mode incorporates aspects of Franchise, Online Franchise, and create a player game modes into one. The user will choose to play offline or online, and from there will choose to be a coach (or created coach), or a player (or created player). You can even unlock legendary players and play as them. A coach will play both sides of the field, while a player will only play while his position is on the field, and if at any point you decide to change the player you’re controlling, you can do so within the league you’ve created, without having to start from scratch. Players can also hit the practice field to collect XP, which can later be spent on upgrades to improve your player’s performance. Otherwise, the mode operates like a normal 30 season franchise mode.

Madden Giants: The Super Bowl champs fared pretty well as a team in this version of Madden, but not well enough for the top spot in the game. The Giants’ miracle run earned them an overall rating of 84, which is tied with the Eagles for fourth-best after after the Patriots (86), Packers (86) and Steelers (85).

Eli Manning is rightfully the team’s best player, with an overall rating of 97. He was also rewarded for his durability with a 98 injury rating, which is good because the offensive line is sub-par. Behind him, David Carr is a 71 and Ryan Perrilloux is a 55. Yikes.

The Giants’ top two wide receivers can match up with anyone in the game. Hakeem Nicks is one of the best in the game with a 94 rating, while Victor Cruz isn’t far behind at 90. Perhaps most importantly, Cruz will salsa after every touchdown, if not quite as smoothly as he does so in real life.

Like the real Giants, the video version’s strength on defense comes from the defensive ends. The team’s second highest-rating goes to Jason Pierre-Paul, who earned a 96 overall. He’s followed by Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora, who were rated at 93 and 88, respectively.

Generally, I’d say the team’s ratings are pretty fair. Being tied with the Eagles after last year feels like a bit of a slight, but the Giants have never been known to win their battles on paper. As for the game, it’s a pretty solid improvement over the 2012 version, and the year after your favorite team wins the Super Bowl is a pretty good time to buy. Happy playing, and go Giants!

The New York Football Giants of 1986 hosted the NFC Championship game at Giants Stadium 25 years ago this week.  It was a familiar match-up with the Division rival Washington Redskins.  It was also a contest against mother nature.

With winds whipping upwards of 30 miles an hour, the Giants and Redskins battled the elements all day.  Harry Carson, as the lone captain for the coin toss, called tails as always and wins the toss.  The words “We’ll take the wind” are now a part of Giants lore.  The Giants scored 10 first quarter points, and held Washington to just 2 first downs.  The Redskins punted three times in the first quarter and netted 23, 27, and 24 yards.  Behind 10-0, the Redskins mounted a drive in the 2nd quarter, only to have a botched snap on a field goal try of 51 yards.  The Redskins were doomed.  Jay Schroeder was forced to pass 50 times in this game, many of them futilely into the strong and gusting winds.  He finished the game 20-50 with a 3.8 yard average per pass.

After the 17-0 halftime lead, the Giants defense took over and made that the final score.  At the conclusion of the game, John Madden remarked “Last year, I thought the Bears had the best defense I had ever seen. But in the last two weeks, I feel these Giants have as good a defense as has ever played in this league.”  He was right.  They had now given up a total of 3 points in two playoff games.

The Giants, and their faithful fans, now started planning their trip to sunny Pasadena for a re-match with the John Elway led Denver Broncos.  Those of you who have been following this series of stories know that we already had plane tickets in hand, purchased the day after the Giants defeated the Broncos back in November.  It was quite a trip…stay tuned

Who's ready for some Madden 12 football?

To me, Madden release day used to be one of those days I looked forward to the most during the year. It was like Christmas in the summer time. I loved football, couldn’t have signed up for enough fantasy football teams and bought Madden every year it came out for my PS2.

The first ever Madden I played was Madden 94 on my old Sega Genesis console. I couldn’t get enough of it. I wasn’t as big a football fan as I am now and would always play as the Dallas Cowboys because I found Emmitt Smith unstoppable, or whatever word he would make up today that means unstoppable. I wasn’t a Giants fan and I didn’t have any team allegiances back then so please don’t hate on me for using the Cowboys in Madden 95. If it makes you happy there were plenty of times when the ambulance came and carted Emmitt and other Cowboys off the field.

Madden was much simpler back then.

At a point in my life, however, Madden didn’t really excite me anymore. Neither did fantasy football but that’ a story for another time. There weren’t too many new features being added in Madden and I felt like I was wasting money every year just for new rosters. So, just like Brett Favre had done, I decided to retire from Madden after the 09 version. Brett Favre, in his Packers uniform, newly retired, was the coverboy for Madden 09, which happened to be the 20^th anniversary edition of Madden. We were both going out together. Or so I thought…

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Justin Tuck is a “Madden” sack master, and the ratings across the defensive line should make things tough for opposing offenses. Look for gamers using the G-Men to hand the ball to Da’Rel Scott as the halfback’s 96 speed, 94 acceleration will make him a “Madden” star no matter what the seventh round pick does in the real NFL.