Madden NFL 12 Cover Athlete Voting: Round 1 Results

A few hours ago, voting for round 1 of the Madden NFL 12 Cover athlete was closed and round 2 is now open. This year, EA Sports is using a 32-player tournament-style bracket to let the fans of the game, and the NFL, decide who will grace this year’s cover.

EA chose one representative for each NFL team and seeded them similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets. There were a few blowouts in round 1, the biggest being the Falcons’ quarterback Matt “Matty Ice” Ryan defeating the Panthers’ offensive lineman Jordan Gross to the tune of 89% to 11%. Others included Aaron Rodgers beating Ndamukong Suh, Michael Vick over DeMarcus Ware and Hines Ward topping Carlos Dunlap.

The biggest upset was Browns’ running back Peyton Hillis defeating Ravens’ running back Ray Rice. Hillis was the 10 seed and Rice the 7, so it was not really that big of an upset.

The image below features the match-ups for round 2. Click the bracket to submit your vote:

With the exception of Danny Woodhead versus Hakeem Nicks, there is a marquee NFL player in every match-up in round 2, with seven of the remaining 16 players being quarterbacks. There are also two players still in contention that have graced the Madden NFL cover already. Last year, Drew Brees was named cover athlete and in Madden NFL 2004, it was Michael Vick as a member of the Atlanta Falcons. If either of those players win the voting, it will be the first time a player will be on the cover twice.

So does that cancel out or double the curse? Drew Brees appeared to go unharmed last year, if you don’t count the embarrassing first-round playoff exit to the Seattle Seahawks… who didn’t even have a player worthy enough to be in contention since their fans were their team’s representative.

Who is your guess for the winner? Are the fans voting for their favorite players or for their favorite team’s rival to strike them down with the Madden Curse! Make your guesses in the comment section below.