Madden NFL 15 Cover Voting Has Begun - Only 16 Players in the Bracket

[Steve_OS]

The Madden NFL 15 cover vote has begun. Only 16 players will square off this year, 2 of them are Eagles. The brackets will advance every Thursday until a winner is announced on SportsCenter, June 6th.

Read the full press release below.

Tonight at the NFL Draft, Electronic Arts Inc. and ESPN officially announced the details of the Madden NFL 15 Cover Vote. This year’s competition sees 16 of the brightest young stars in the game squaring off in a bracket to determine who will adorn the cover. Fans can now vote once per day at ESPN.com/maddenvote, and discuss and debate on social platforms such as @ESPNNFL and the NFL on ESPN Facebook page with the hashtag #MaddenCover. Every Thursday, the results of each round of voting will be announced during NFL Live at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN accompanied by expert analysis and conversation. Players in the running will also make special appearances on ESPN programming and platforms throughout the vote, campaigning for their right to be on the cover of Madden NFL 15. The two finalists will appear and the overall winner will be announced live from LA LIVE Plaza in a special segment during the 6 p.m. hour of SportsCenter on Friday, June 6.

Here’s the full breakdown of first-round matchups, as well as each player’s seeding in this year’s bracket:

“The Madden NFL Cover Vote is always a special time of year,” said EA Senior Director of North American Marketing Randy Chase. “I’m curious to see if the 12th Man can propel Richard Sherman to the cover, or if the 49ers fans get their revenge and knock him out of the competition. No matter what, there are going to be some great matchups and intense rivalries.”

“Every year, ESPN and EA SPORTS continue to go bigger with the Madden NFL Cover Vote, and there’s no better way to kick off the vote for Madden NFL 15 than having last year’s winner and NFL legend Barry Sanders announcing it on stage at the NFL Draft,” said Raphael Poplock, vice president of games and partnerships for ESPN. “We are building on our momentum over the last three Madden NFL Cover Votes to deliver an engaging experience that puts the cover in the hands of the fans, which have resulted in some of ESPN’s most successful social activations to date.”

Madden NFL 15 delivers everything fans need to own their rivals on both sides of the field, including the most immersive defensive gameplay control in franchise history. Like the Super Bowl XLVIII champion Seattle Seahawks, you can win championships and bask in the glory of success by building a great defense fit to challenge the best offenses in the game. Fans will also experience an entirely new broadcast presentation that delivers Madden NFL game day like never before with dramatic all-new camera angles, as well as dynamic pre-game and halftime features. It’s not just football, it’s Madden Season.

Madden NFL 15 is developed in Orlando, Florida by EA Tiburon and will be available on August 26 in North America and on August 29 in the EU for Xbox One, the all-in-one entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and the PlayStation®3 entertainment system. To learn more about Madden NFL 15, visit http://www.easports.com/madden-nfl.

[mjavon]

T.Y. Hilton is a candidate? What?! This whole cover vote thing they've done the past few years is just pure silliness. The only players that should have a shot at the cover this year IMO:

Peyton Manning
Tom Brady (kind of remarkable neither of them have ever been a cover athlete)
Richard Sherman
Marshawn Lynch

[Jrocc23]

Have a good feeling Shady can make it to the Finals.

[MossMan84]

Some players dont want the commitment of being on the cover thus no Brady, Manning ect. These guys are focused on one thing, not parading around on tv or flying here n there to make appearances for ea! Or could it be the curse lol. Sherman will take it!

[mjavon]

The commitment? Baloney! How many commercials has Peyton Manning been in?!

[SeventhWard]

Know how ancient man would look up at the stars and recognize the patterns year after year? Mankind got so proficient at it, explorers traveled the seas using only the stars for navigation.

The same goes for Madden. I've been watching these guys for a long time and like ancient man, I recognize the patterns. Here's how this will likely work....

The press release for Madden NFL 15 already says that this version of Madden is putting the emphasis on Defense. You've got the first Teaser Trailer released a few weeks ago, featuring a middle linebacker. You can throw all of these offense guys out of the window - a defender is going to be on the cover.

Now, take into account that the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl this year and Richard Sherman is one of the most recognizable DBs in football right now. Remember this? Joe Public does....



Marketing and research is what EA does best. Arguably, they're better at business than they are at making games nowadays. There's way too many dollars at stake.

My educated guess is that Richard Sherman will be your Madden NFL 15 Cover Athlete. The cynic inside me says the vote is a sham and low cost publicity to make Madden relevant now that we're in the typical marketing window of ~90 days until launch.

-SeventhWard

[mjavon]

I would agree with that. My only argument would be that although Sherman is recognizable to the general public, there are a lot of Sherman-haters too. Hell, Peyton is better known and held in higher regard than Richard Sherman. But he's not even in the running.

[SmashMan]

Seems like a foregone conclusion that Sherman will win, but I have no problem with it - incorporating the Seahawks' color scheme might make for an interesting looking cover.