Bedlam Continues

A cover vote for the newest edition of EA Sports' Madden video game has been ongoing over at ESPN for sometime now. Finally, they've reached the finals. The final vote for who is going to grace the cover of Madden '14, due out in August.

Who wants to? Probably every sports fan. Who doesn't want to? Probably most active professional athletes. It is an honor, there's no doubt. But the curse of the cover is too real to ignore for current athletes. Since John Madden removed himself from the cover and began adding players in 2001, the following season has been less than admirable for the stars, some of whom have even suffered injuries that caused time off or even season ending trips to the doctor.

More importantly is who are the finalist's for this year's cover vote. Barry Sanders, who retired from the NFL in 1999 after ten years with the Detroit Lions is up against Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings. Arguably the greatest running back of all time is going up against one who could be the greatest running back of all time after his time is up. Fascinating.

What makes this even more interesting is the matchup for who graces the cover of Madden is now the newest, and unintentional, bedlam battle. Oklahoma versus Oklahoma State. The matchup we all love to throw ourselves into.

Sanders did things at Oklahoma State nobody had seen before and has seen since. Some call what Sanders did in 1988 the greatest season in college football history. 2,850 yards rushing and 42 touchdowns, the yards a record. He won the Heisman that year and ranked number two in the Greatest College Football Players of All-time by ESPN.

Peterson, well, what he did at Oklahoma most of you know about. AP Freshman of the year, stunning runs, powerful runs. Peterson was well on his way to breaking the Oklahoma record for rushing yards and could have challenged Sanders in his senior year but "AD" went to the NFL after an injury shortened junior season.

Both Sanders and Peterson enjoyed stellar NFL careers, Peterson still doing incredible things for the Minnesota Vikings. Whoever wins the cover of Madden is no doubt a deserving winner. I don't care who wins, I vote for Barry. I'm just glad to see a little Bedlam continuing post-university.