EA SPORTS AND ESPN’S SPORTSNATION KICK OFF MADDEN NFL 13 COVER ATHLETE FAN VOTE
This Year’s Campaign Expands to 64 Players – With Play-In Round Featuring Two Athletes
From Each NFL Team Represented in Head-to-Head Matchups
March 7, 2012 –
EA SPORTS™ and ESPN announced today the return of the award-winning
Madden NFL Cover Vote campaign, where fans can cast their vote for the next athlete to grace the cover of one of the highest-selling videogame franchises in North America. Last year, nearly 13 million votes were cast through ESPNSportsNation.com and ESPN mobile in both companies’ most successful cross-platform activation. Tenth-seeded Cleveland Browns running back, Peyton Hillis, trucked through the six week competition all the way to the ultimate end zone – the Madden NFL 12 cover.
This year’s competition will incorporate more athletes and more chances to vote as the field has been expanded to 64 NFL players, putting even more control in the hands of the fans. Beginning today through March 21, fans can visit the
SportsNation Facebook page to choose among the 64 candidates in a play-in round (each matchup features two players from the same NFL team) to advance to the official 32-player, seeded tournament. The winners of the play-in round will be unveiled with the official seeded, 32-player bracket on March 21 on ESPN’s “Madden Cover Vote Special” from 5-6p.m. EST. To ensure their favorite player advances to the next round, fans are encouraged to vote daily and tweet their picks using #MyMaddenCoverVote on Twitter. Every Wednesday between March 21 and April 25, fans can tune into SportsNation on ESPN2 at 5p.m. EST to check out the latest Madden NFL 13 Cover Vote standings.
In addition to the SportsNation Facebook page, fans will be able to vote in the play-in round via the open Web through widgets embedded on blogs, websites and more. Each widget features an individual match-up for each of the 32 total teams in the league. For the cover vote from March 21-April 25, all voting must be cast at ESPN.com/MaddenVote.
The star-studded list of candidates participating in the play-in round features past Super Bowl winners, perennial Pro Bowlers and some of the most popular players in the NFL including Drew Brees, Arian Foster and Rob Gronkowski. The full list of matchups featured in the play-in round are:
AFC
Ravens
Terrell Suggs vs. Ray Rice
Jets
Mark Sanchez vs. Darrelle Revis
Steelers
Troy Polamalu vs. Ben Roethlisberger
Bills
Stevie Johnson vs. Ryan Fitzpatrick
Browns
Joe Thomas vs. Joe Haden
Dolphins
Reggie Bush vs. Brandon Marshall
Bengals
Andy Dalton vs. AJ Green
Patriots
Wes Welker vs. Rob Gronkowski
Texans
Arian Foster vs. Andre Johnson
Chargers
Phillip Rivers vs. Antonio Gates
Colts
Dwight Freeney vs. Robert Mathis
Broncos
Tim Tebow vs. Von Miller
Jaguars
Maurice Jones-Drew vs. Blaine Gabbert
Chiefs
Dwayne Bowe vs. Derrick Johnson
Titans
Jake Locker vs. Chris Johnson
Raiders
Sebastian Janikowski vs. Shane Lechler
NFC
Bears
Jay Cutler vs. Matt Forte
Rams
Chris Long vs. Brandon Lloyd
Lions
Calvin Johnson vs. Matt Stafford
49ers
Vernon Davis vs. Patrick Willis
Vikings
Percy Harvin vs. Jared Allen
Seahawks
Marshawn Lynch vs. Earl Thomas
Packers
Aaron Rodgers vs. Clay Matthews
Cardinals
Larry Fitzgerald vs. Patrick Peterson
Falcons
Matt Ryan vs. Julio Jones
Eagles
Michael Vick vs. LeSean McCoy
Saints
Drew Brees vs. Jimmy Graham
Giants
Victor Cruz vs. Jason Pierre-Paul
Panthers
Cam Newton vs. Steve Smith
Cowboys
Jason Witten vs. DeMarcus Ware
Buccaneers
Josh Freeman vs. LeGarrette Blount
Redskins
Brian Orakpo vs. Ryan Kerrigan
The Madden NFL 13 cover vote marks the third-consecutive year that EA SPORTS has asked fans to help shape the face of the Madden NFL franchise through a cover athlete voting campaign. It also marks the second year of its collaboration with ESPN’s SportsNation.
Madden NFL 13 is developed in Orlando, Florida by EA Tiburon. For more information about Madden NFL 13, please visit:
http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl.
All player participation has been facilitated by National Football League Players Incorporated, the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFL Players Association.
EA SPORTS™ is one of the leading sports entertainment brands in the world, with top-selling videogame franchises, award-winning interactive technology, global videogame competitions and breakthrough digital experiences. EA SPORTS delivers experiences that ignite the emotions of sport through industry-leading sports simulation videogames, including Madden NFL football, FIFA Soccer, NHL® hockey, NBA basketball, NCAA® Football, Fight Night boxing, EA SPORTS MMA and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® golf, and EA SPORTS Active.
For more information about EA SPORTS, including news, video, blogs, forums and game apps, please visit
www.easports.com to connect, share and compete.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company’s game franchises are offered as both packaged goods products and online services delivered through Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets. EA has more than 100 million registered players and operates in 75 countries.
In fiscal 2011, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.6 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for critically acclaimed, high-quality blockbuster franchises such as The Sims™, Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, Need for Speed™, Battlefield™, and Mass Effect™.
EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Active, The Sims and Need for Speed are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. Mass Effect is a trademark of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. Battlefield is a trademark of EA Digital Illusions CE AB. John Madden, NFL, FIFA, NHL, NBA, NCAA, Tiger Woods, and PGA TOUR are trademarks of their respective owners and used with permission. Twitter is a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Officially Licensed Product of National Football League Players Incorporated.
About SportsNation
SportsNation is a live sports television show born from the Internet, fueled by fan interaction and focused on fun. The show, which has the youngest and most male audience on the ESPN network, features discussions of the day’s hottest sports topics but also smaller stories that generate buzz on the Web but are overlooked by other shows. Feeding off the theory that if two heads are better than one, 200,000 heads are better than two, SportsNation engages hundreds of thousands of sports fans across the country via ESPN.com’s SportsNation page (
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/).
About ESPN Games and EA
ESPN’s long-standing relationship with EA produces deep brand integrations into console gaming titles such as EA SPORTS NCAA Football 12 and Fight Night Champion. Additionally, the relationship in 2011 produced the biggest ESPN poll vote ever for the Madden NFL 12 cover vote, logging nearly 13 million votes, the most ESPN votes ever for a joint collaboration. The Emmy award-winning EA Virtual Playbook also most recently extended to boxing and golf in 2011.
