EA Considered Changing Madden 09 Cover Athlete
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Coming out of the class action lawsuit that the retired NFL players won against the Player’s Association was an interesting sequence of questioning around Brett Favre being the Madden 09 cover athlete. You can check out the full story at Gamepolitics. Apparently EA had made the decision to put him on the cover before he retired, then when he did they considered switching to someone else. Instead they stuck with him and sculpted the marketing angle of him representing the 20 years of the franchise around that.
(Questioning being made to EA exec Joel Linzner)
Q: Right. And you chose to put on the cover of that a retired player at the time, right?
JL: Uhm, well, Brett Favre at the time we decided to put him on the cover was not retired, had not announced his retirement. He subsequently announced his retirement. We thought about replacing him to have an active player. But the logistics of making the packages are kind of complicated, and we decided to stay with Brett Favre. And I think as most people subsequently know, he revoked his retirement and is currently an active player with the New York Jets.
So at this point it seems likely the cover athlete for Madden 10 has been determined we just won’t know who it is until around the NFL Draft. I just find it somewhat naive to think that EA didn’t plan in advance for the possibility of Favre retiring with his history of waivering back and forth for attention.
February 8, 2009 at 7:39 pm
everyone knew favre was a jackass and doesnt care about anyone but himself. why would ea think he would honor their agreement when he doesnt his others. oh well at least the curse got him in the end
February 8, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Now that you mentioned it, this news could give more ammo to the "curse" discussion. Brett was put on the cover when all was well and he was going to come back and have another good year with the Packers. As the curse took effect, he proceeded to create the huge mess that exists now.
February 8, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Wish they would of put someone else. Cry baby Favre doesn’t deserve it. His stats are good, but personality-wise, he isn’t a Madden athlete.
February 8, 2009 at 11:23 pm
idk about any curse. but brett really only had two good years in his carreer. didnt they put him on the cover anticipating that he would retire? this seamed like EA paying their respects to favre. u kno they even put the guy in the hall of fame free agent pool!!!! as a legend! EA seams to just be sweeping this under the rug and covering it up.
February 8, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Its John Maddens name on the game and everyone knows he has a boner for Favre.
February 9, 2009 at 8:08 am
lol true
February 9, 2009 at 12:07 am
Enough of this head swelling cover athlete discussion for Madden games. Lets see them redeem themself, then we can resume pretending like this stuff matters.
February 9, 2009 at 3:57 am
Agreed!
February 9, 2009 at 6:41 am
Exactly. Im so tired of it personally. EA hasn't deserved the hype its Madden game has gotten for nearly 5 years now
February 9, 2009 at 8:09 am
06 WAS GOOD AS HELL THO ON PS2
February 9, 2009 at 4:17 am
Why change the cover when the game is old?
February 9, 2009 at 4:34 am
Did you even bother to read the story?
February 9, 2009 at 6:48 am
No I didn't, but I will now.
February 9, 2009 at 4:36 am
Favre sucks
February 9, 2009 at 4:21 pm
yea he does.
BDAWK for 010 cover.
February 9, 2009 at 3:00 pm
It said that they considered changing the cover athlete when Favre retired. Which was before the game even came out. The story wasn't saying they were going to change it right now. Reading the story sure helps out. Lol.