In the most anticipated sports-related event since... uh... the Olympics last night, Madden '09 will be available for purchase at midnight on August 12th, as evidenced by this mildly entertaining clip that is essentially a derivative of The 40-Year-Old Virgin 's "Know how I know you're gay?" scene and Vince Vaughn's Madden smack-talk during The Break-Up , which in turn was ...

EA, wanting to make sure there's no way I'd leave work on time today, sent out a late announcement that while Madden NFL 09 will ship with Brett Favre as a Packer on its cover, a download will be made available for fans to print a Jets-specific Favre cover shortly after the release. EA also reiterated that a roster patch will be available for download on Aug. 12. (They also wanted to ...

I love this time of year. We're now just seven days from the release of EA's latest Madden NFL football game. But I don't own a single game console, and haven't picked up a controller not shaped like a guitar in years. So why the hell would I care? I care because it means writers all around the country will be talking about the Madden Jinx. And I'm the one who made it up.

There is no holier a day in sports video gaming than the day the latest Madden release hits the shelves. In celebration of this cultural phenomenon, we'll be bringing you Madden-related content all week to get you worked up into the appropriate lather. But to kick off this week right, we want to hear from you . Everyone's got a Madden story to tell, even The Mag's Bruce Feldman :

A few of EA's recent releases have been plagued by various issues (see: NASCAR 09 and NCAA Football 09 -- more to come on the latter today). The next big release, as you already know, is Madden NFL 09 . The review copies have landed with reviewers (including yours truly) and although there is an embargo on reviews, that hasn't stopped some information from slipping out. Perhaps the nugget ...