| 28 April 2011
Hillis will grace the front of Madden 12, this after taking down Michael Vick in the final round of voting revealed Wednesday. Surprisingly, it wasn't even close, with Hillis getting a 2-to-1 spread in vote.
Over the five weeks, 13 million people voted, according to ESPN. It was a perfect setup for Hillis to win, because he had the good guy vote as he went up against a player with some hefty past transgressions. Surely, some fans out there did the "I'll vote for the non-Vick guy, no matter who he is" move. Don't get me wrong, Cleveland fans probably outnumbered the Vick haters in this situation, or else Vick wouldn't have been anywhere near the finals.
Regardless of how it turned out, it was 99 percent the right move.
It was a good move for EA Sports. Thirteen million votes means there is some heavy publicity about the game, even if it won't be out for several months. The game was embedded in our minds for five weeks, and yet it could turn out to be a very crappy product or very awesome.
Here's the 1 percent. It does suck in a way that the most deserving player won't see the cover. No, not Vick, he didn't deserve to be anywhere near the cover (and not because of his past bad moments; he needed one more year of on-the-field domination to get my nod). Aaron Rodgers won Super Bowl XLV, took a storied franchise to the mountain top, and had career numbers. For his best chance to be on the cover, he won't sniff it.
That's the bad part about the cover vote. But oh well, can't win them all.
Speaking of winning, since having a player on the cover, only two players have been from losing teams: Hillis and Barry Sanders. Both of their teams went 5-11 the season prior to being on the cover. Slight difference is that Sanders is in the background; Hillis won't be. The only other player from a non-winning team was Vince Young, whose run in 2006 helped the Titans finish 8-8.
We'll see if coming from a losing season will hurt. Could it? Maybe we get this conversation at a game store on August 30 between two random people:
"Who's on the cover?"
"Peyton Hills. Hillis? It's not Peyton Manning that's for sure."
"What team?"
"The Browns. Wait, the 5-11 Browns? Am I going to buy the game this year?"
Doubt that will happen but it could. And yes, people will say that the rest of the Browns shouldn't have played a factor in Hillis (1,177 yards, 11 touchdowns) being considered. I also put Hillis in the Vick category; one more year of dominance and then you get on the cover. Hillis should have another awesome season, whenever next season happens.
Both guys were one year ahead of schedule. But thanks to the fan vote, one player received the honor now.
Video of ESPN's announcement follows the jump ...
