Imagine waking up at EA to learn that less than a week before you’re about to release the ambitious anniversary edition of Madden NFL 09 to stores, your supposedly retired cover athlete and spokesperson has been traded into active starting duty.
That’s exactly what happened with word the ongoing and increasingly intrusive Brett Favre saga had come to a close with his being shipped off to the New York Jets. Consequently, the Jets rid themselves of Chad Pennington for at least this coming season to trim excess unnecessary salary at the quarterback position.
With Madden NFL 09 already on its way to stores for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and other platforms, it was too late for EA to make a last-minute cover art switch. Instead they’re doing the next best thing: offering a downloadable alternative cover from EASports.com in the coming days. This new cover may or may not appear on the retail release down the road. It’s simply too early to know.
With Favre at the helm, EA predicts via a Madden NFL 09 simulation that the New York Jets will win their most games since 1998 and earn a berth in the AFC Playoffs with an overall regular season record of 11-4-1. The same simulation without Favre has the Jets finishing with a 9-7 record.
Good luck, Brett. You’re going to need it.
Check out five screenshots below snapped today from Madden NFL 09 with Favre sporting his new unis and running his new offense. Yeah, it looks weird to us, too.
