Superstitious Eagles fans can breath a sigh of relief. QB Michael Vick won’t be gracing the cover of the Madden 12 videogame.
Vick, who was already the cover model for the 2004 edition famous NFL game, last to Browns running back Peyton Hillis in the final round of ESPN.com’s Madden 12 Cover Vote.
In the end it wasn’t even close as Hillis, who seemingly came out of nowhere to rush from more than 1,100 yards got 66 percent of the votes compared to just 34 percent for the Eagles Pro Bowl QB.
The 10th-seeded Hillis overwhelmingly defeated Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, seeded third, garnering 66 percent of the vote in the final of the 32-player bracket and will be on the cover of this year’s version of the popular NFL video game franchise. This is the first year that fans were allowed to vote for the game’s cover.
After he was named the winner, Hillis said he was "excited" and that he didn't think he had a shot against Vick who he has "always looked up to."
To be considered for the video game cover again was “a great opportunity,” Vick said. But for plenty of the Eagles faithful they were sweating bullets – worrying about their star signal caller gracing what some consider to be a “cursed” cover. Vick, Donovan McNabb (’06) and Shaun Alexander (’07) were all Madden cover failures. Of course maybe this year Hillis will be more like Ray Lewis (’05) who went on the All-Pro honors after gracing the cover of Madden.
In any case don’t expect to see Vick’s mug on your video game this summer.
