Brett Favre to be on the cover of Madden 2008

Read it on 1up.com that EA will announce Favre to be the cover boy. I know that I'm happy about this news and someone we know is going to be doing the Mahna Mahna in Minnesota.

I guess that's one way to avoid the Madden cover curse.

I hope there is an all Brett Favre team option.

Elliottx wrote:

I hope there is an all Brett Favre team option.

Awesome!

That team would be unstopable!

How appropriate! A cover indicative of the once great, but currently over-hyped and overrated game inside the box.

PsychoKillerZ wrote:

I guess that's one way to avoid the Madden cover curse.

Who says he has to get hurt playing football?

kaostheory wrote:
Elliottx wrote:

I hope there is an all Brett Favre team option.

Awesome!

That team would be unstopable!

Unless, of course, he played an all Ditka team.

Da' Bears!!

Pointmonger wrote:

How appropriate! A cover indicative of the once great, but currently over-hyped and overrated game inside the box.

Did you watch football last year?

nsmike wrote:
PsychoKillerZ wrote:

I guess that's one way to avoid the Madden cover curse.

Who says he has to get hurt playing football?

Touche, my good man. Perhaps a hip-breaking fall is in his near future.

Yeah, I watched football. Every game I could with the Sunday Ticket. Brett Favre was never as great as the media slurpage made him out to be. What were his stats in Green Bay's playoff loss? That was the Brett Farve I'd gotten used to in the recent past, making bad decisions and throwing bad passes. I guess Madden's man crush on him helped everyone forget that. Aside from this past regular season, the previous few he was a hindrance to his team. Too erratic, took too many stupid chances. If it hadn't been for past glories, he would've been benched two seasons ago. This was also the guy who called out teammates for holding out for what weren't unreasonable sums of money while he was collecting huge paychecks and had a nice little painkiller addiction to go along with his admitted drinking problem that we all seem to sweep under the rug. Or how about holding the team and fans hostage every offseason in recent memory over the "will he or won't he retire" garbage. Oh yeah, I forgot, The Great White Hope and all. (And people gave McNabb garbage over saying he's treated differently. Hmmm.....)

I'm not denying he was great, but Green Bay would have been better served by moving on a few years ago.

My opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Pointmonger wrote:

Yeah, I watched football. Every game I could with the Sunday Ticket. Brett Favre was never as great as the media slurpage made him out to be. What were his stats in Green Bay's playoff loss? That was the Brett Farve I'd gotten used to in the recent past, making bad decisions and throwing bad passes. I guess Madden's man crush on him helped everyone forget that. Aside from this past regular season, the previous few he was a hindrance to his team. Too erratic, took too many stupid chances. If it hadn't been for past glories, he would've been benched two seasons ago. This was also the guy who called out teammates for holding out for what weren't unreasonable sums of money while he was collecting huge paychecks and had a nice little painkiller addiction to go along with his admitted drinking problem that we all seem to sweep under the rug. Or how about holding the team and fans hostage every offseason in recent memory over the "will he or won't he retire" garbage. Oh yeah, I forgot, The Great White Hope and all. (And people gave McNabb crap over saying he's treated differently. Hmmm.....)

I'm not denying he was great, but Green Bay would have been better served by moving on a few years ago.

My opinion and I'm sticking to it.

I obviously disagree. Not sure what his painkiller drinking has to do with anything especially since you insinuate as if thats still going on and he didn't address that head on and admit to his faults. Reasonable money? pretty sure that same receiver was released by the Broncos this year to be picked up by the Raiders where players go to die I mean retire. The last couple of years his team was argued a hindrance to him and he could of taken the selfish route of retiring or demanding a trade to another team and there were other teams that would take him. Him compared to McNabb? McNabb is great and all when hes on the field but thats the catch especially compared to Favre as he was always on the field even when he could of sat out injured. Bad decisions? Well that was him his entire career trying to force the issue and living on that fine line between brilliant and awful. But your right its your opinion and if you want to take the opposite side you can but he still has the records and a title and many peoples admiration to justify the media coverage he got.

I'm saying most players wouldn't have gotten the free pass he got on the painkiller deal. It was all "Look how brave Favre is."
He's been treated with kid gloves where no other quarterback would have been. He lost that playoff game for them, like it or not, but I didn't see one sportswriter come out and lay the blame at his feet.

I'm not saying McNabb is better than Favre, but if he had come out and admitted to being addicted to vicodin, do you think there would have been the same reaction? Would there have been the same reaction with any QB or player? We are a society that loves to tear our heroes down and then lift them back up. Somehow, Favre never had to deal with that.

As for badmouthing a teammate's holdout, anyone else would have been shot down as airing dirty laundry in public. Heck, McNabb was pretty civil during the whole TO thing and still caught grief from all sides, and TO was an a**.

Pointmonger wrote:

I'm not denying he was great, but Green Bay would have been better served by moving on a few years ago.

My opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Well Opinions are known to be wrong but I fully disagree I think Favre was an amazing player that definitely deserves to be on the cover of Madden.

The team moving on without Favre earlier, in and of itself, wouldn't have been enough to improve the team's current welfare.

The Packers badly lacked front office direction after Ron Wolf left in 2001. Drafting was not handled well under Sherman (despite the O-line whittling away with age, the team did not draft a lineman earlier than round 5 during Sherman's entire GM run, 2002-2005). Sherman managed to hit a couple of 1st round picks (Javon Walker, Nick Barnett), but fared quite poorly further down the draft. Ironically, one of the few hits, 2004 6th round DT Corey Williams, was traded away this offseason just as he's becoming a rising star.

Frankly, it's scary to think about where the Packers would be right now without the 2006 draft class, the first post-Sherman class. A.J. Hawk and Abdul Hodge are two excellent young linebackers. After four years of complete neglect, the offensive line locked in new long-term starters at both guard spots with Daryn Colledge and Jason Spitz. And Greg Jennings brought some immediate impact to the receiver spot. Then, they went and grabbed Atari Bigby as an undrafted free agent, scoring a starting strong safety out of the deal. Six young immediate impact players. It was quite a shot in the arm after four years of starvation.

Last year's draft brought less immediate impact, but Justin Harrell and Aaron Rouse look to be contributors to the defense this year. The team also did well in drafting Brandon Jackson and DeShawn Wynn, along with the trade for Ryan Grant, to resuscitate their running back position with a youth infusion. And they did score an awesome kicker in Mason Crosby.

It would have been nice for Aaron Rodgers to have led the rebuilding team, establishing himself as a leader along the way. In that regard, Favre did the team no favors, and the team did themselves no favors by being beholden to Favre. Favre's resurgence last year helped whitewash what were two awful declining seasons before that. Along the way, the team has rebuilt itself into a team with more of a ground game focus - although you wouldn't notice that based on the offense's 21st ranking in rushing (which is largely due to how poorly the team ran in the first 6 weeks of the season). Over the course of 2007, the passing numbers trended sharply downward, the rushing numbers sharply upward, and the offense overall trended upward. At the very least, they didn't wait for Favre to leave before developing the post-Favre offense. It just would have been nice if Aaron Rodgers had helmed that offense a bit.

I have no idea if any of Legion's assertions and/or statistics are correct (who the hell is Jason Spitz?),
but boy does he sounds convincing! Only if our local sportswriters are as informed about the Steelers as you are about the Packers (and probably the Steelers, too)...

If the curse holds up, will Farve just die next year?

MaverickDago wrote:

If the curse holds up, will Farve just die next year?

Actually, it seems that the inability to curse is making things go haywire. The developers are doing unheard of things like making a new, GOOD animation engine!

Cats and dogs, living together...

*Legion* wrote:
MaverickDago wrote:

If the curse holds up, will Farve just die next year?

Actually, it seems that the inability to curse is making things go haywire. The developers are doing unheard of things like making a new, GOOD animation engine!

Cats and dogs, living together...

Yes, but, as with every preview: I'll believe in any improvements when I play the game. Every previous iteration of Madden has gotten these gushing previews from just about everyone. And they've sucked.

The videos do look better...but still goofy. Whether the changes will mean a better football experience is a question that will have to wait until it's release.

No matter what, they bleed me dry. Damn you Madden, damn you and your updated rosters.

Pointmonger wrote:

I'm saying most players wouldn't have gotten the free pass he got on the painkiller deal.

Frankly, I call bullsh*t. First off - Favre was in the middle of a number of injuries when that addiction was developed. Not to mention that the painkiller in question was vicodin, which doctors very commonly use, which causes addiction to patients across the globe. It's a problem that vicodin is known for.

Not to mention that he didn't get a free pass - he straight up admitted it when the NFL started investigating, and had he not gone to rehab, the NFL would have fined him $900,000. Oh, right, and he stayed in rehab for 46 days.

The NFL has had a long track record of giving players the benefit of the doubt if they simply stand up and admit it, regardless of what color you are (which is what you're insinuating).

Hell, Legion'll tell you - Jimmy Smith of the Jaguars was found with cocaine in his system. The punishment? Four game suspension. That's all. Cocaine. Not a drug that he got from an injury. Cocaine. Cocaine.

Michael Irvin, back in '96? Five game suspension.

Both Jimmy and Irvin and most anyone else who hits up a suspension - they're not only found with controlled substances, but so many were caught by the police and driving. Go Google up "NFL Substance Abuse." Out of all the ones you can find, all of the first-suspension cases have three things in common:

1) Using narcotics (marijuana/cocaine);
2) Driving or otherwise in a vehicle;
3) Pulled over by police and subsequently charged.

It happens all the time. So, yeah, long story short: You're about as wrong as its gets.

As for badmouthing a teammate's holdout, anyone else would have been shot down as airing dirty laundry in public. Heck, McNabb was pretty civil during the whole TO thing and still caught grief from all sides, and TO was an a**.

Difference: McNabb made himself a target long ago. And has anyone really shot TO down, uh, ever?

Wonderful logic.