Shaun Alexander will be on the over of the most popular sports video game, Madden 07. This doesn’t really surprise me consider the fact the he was the MVP last year and he almost led his team to the super bowl win. I have two major concerns or issues with this. First is the Madden Jinx. I know many of you don’t believe in the Madden jinx but the facts are to hard to ignore. Marshall Faulks career has never been the same since he has been on the cover of madden, Dante Culpeppers dominance has considerably dropped since being on the cover of Madden. We all saw what happened to Mike Vick in pre-season after he was on the cover, and finally is last year’s lucky cover boy Donovan McNabb. You can’t just say its all coincidence because it really exits. So beware of Alexander in the fantasy drafts next year. The main reason I have with Alexander being on the cover is the fact that he is boring. What were they thinking when they put him on the cover?. Do they really think that he is going to help them sell more covers that last year? I really liked what they did a couple of years ago when they revamped the defensive game play and put Ray Lewis on the cover. I think there should be a correlation between the changes in the game play and the athlete on the cover. For instance, if Larry Johnson was to be on the cover of the game (which he will be next year after he breaks all NFL single season rushing records) there would be a “run your ass over mode” where if you got running down hill you would just run over anyone in your way. Or if Reggie Bush ever makes the cover there will be the new “embezzle money mode” where certain players steal money from your team (and use it to buy their parents a new home) under the franchise mode. Back to the main point about Alexander being the cover boy. I completely disagree with Shaun Alexander on the cover because he is extremely boring, except when you refuse to may him money. The man who should have been on the cover is Joey Porter. Porter was dominant throughout the season and playoffs. He gave Peyton problems all day during their match-up in the playoffs and probably showed up later that night in his nightmares. The man has an electrifying personality and great athletic ability. I think EA dropped the ball on this one.

David Lemmon
www.ROCKSOLIDFANTASYSPORTS.com