And now the top 5 in the power rankings for Madden 08. Previous 32-28, 27-22, 21-16, 15-11, 10-6. 5- New Orleans Saints New Orleans looks a lot like they did last year, with the exception of Joe Horn departing. His loss shouldn't cause too much damage to a very good offensive unit. Because of the weapon categories, players like Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Deuce McAllister, and Marques Colston should benefit. The defense which ranked 11th last year should hold steady. 4- Indianapolis Co...

It appears there is a good chance that a commercial for the upcoming NBA Live and March Madness games will appear during the NBA Draft on June 28th. Recently at the NFL Draft the first commercials for Madden 08 were on display, and featuring a commercial for these two upcoming games with their respective cover athletes would make a lot of sense at the draft this month. Gilbert Arenas mentions in his blog that he will be joining Kevin Durant to film a commercial for EA Sports on June 5th. ...

The official website from EA Sports for NBA Live 08 has gone live. You can check it out by clicking here. Currently on it you can find the news on Gilbert Arenas being selected for the cover as well as the his videos that came out from right around the same time. The producer blogs which have been released on IGN are there as well as the signup for the game's newsletter. Also available are team wallpapers (a new team is added each day) and a countdown to the draft. The Madden website had t...

In the latest producer blog on the official Madden site, Ian Cummings takes the time to go through the first trailer that was released for the game. He picks out individual moments in the trailer and explains what is happening, what they are working on, and even how he is disappointed with some of clips the marketing team used. It is quite a good read and definitely worth the time. It's great to get the thoughts coming out of the Madden camp throughout this process. I think a lot of peopl...

It might take some extraordinary luck, but there is the chance to play Champ Bailey in Madden on Saturday. He'll be on for an hour. Unfortunately the website address is just linking straight to the xbox.com site so some of the specifics aren't laid out. It just appears that you should be online and attempt to send a challenge to the gamertag they set up during that time period. What: NFL Pro-Bowler Champ Bailey is stepping onto the virtual field to test his talent on Xbox LIVE® as par...

Most people saw the Pacman Jones suspension as the first sign of the Madden curse for this year. The Brushback has another take on how the curse is going to affect Vince Young. NASHVILLE--When Titans quarterback Vince Young was selected by EA Sports to appear on the cover of Madden 2008, fans were concerned that he would fall victim to the infamous �Madden Curse� and suffer a season ending injury. Instead, it appears that the curse has struck Young in a totally unexpected way: by for...

The power rankings continue for Madden 08 based on the current NFL team rosters. Below are 10-6, and you can find 32-28 here and 27-22 here and 21-16 here and 15-11 here. 10- Cincinnati Bengals Yes the offense has Carson Palmer, Rudi Johnson, Chad Johnson, and TJ Houshmandzadeh. However they essentially signed no free agents to help the team. Last year's 30th ranked defense actually looks as if it could be worse due to a couple departures. The loss of Eric Steinbach also hurts the offensi...

A new producer blog has been posted at IGN detailing some of the changes and improvements being made to the "fundamentals of basketball". There will be a follow-up fundamentals blog as this one only covers the first four (shooting, passing, rebounding, and ball physics). As I mentioned following my visit to EA Canada the game needed the focus on fundamentals and EA is sure going all out to make it known that is what they concentrated on. After having that drilled into our heads over the p...