40 Acres Sports

I was just thinking the other day, with the NBA Draft coming up on Thursday I figured I would be seeing more Kevin Durant commercials. Thankfully EA Sports has granted my wish. Starting today, [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] (along with Gilbert Arenas) will be featured in 3 different commercials for EA Sports’ upcoming NBA Live ’08 video game.

The first commercial will feature Arena giving Durant dunk tips when Durant clanks one off the rim. “No, no, no! Who’s teaching you this stuff? Left stick, right stick, towards the basket, then the square button when you get close. Wait on the square!”

Here is the second commercial:

And the third commercial will feature Durant stealing the ball from Arenas and going up for an uncontested lay-up. When Arenas tells Durant he hasn’t taught him that yet, Durant replies, “I have my own go-to moves now.”

Can’t wait to see the others.

Big changes coming for NCAA 08 dynasty mode and recruiting. Sounds a lot more interesting and challenging.

The Oklahoma Sooners lost to Boise State in historic fashion in last year’s Fiesta Bowl, and it looks like EA isn’t going to let them forget it. One of the biggest features they’re touting in NCAA Football 08 (due out in July) is all the new trick plays they’ve added to the expanded play books. To highlight the feature, they’re using a clip of Boise State using the Statue of Liberty play to beat OU as the latest trailer. See the video below:

I’m not sure how well the new trick plays will work in the game, even the simple reverses that have been in previous games didn’t work very well. Even if the plays are useless, at least it’ll make Oklahoma fans relive the game a few more times.

Check out the rest of the article.

It’s still early in the NFL Draft and lots of college superstars are finding out which mediocre NFL team they’ll have to spend at least four or five years with, but for Texas fans the only interesting thing so far has been the debut of the new [tag]Vince Young[/tag] commercial for Madden 08:

Decent commercial but not too exciting and no video of the game. EA hasn’t shown any actual gameplay footage at the draft the last few years so we’ll likely have to wait to learn more about the game in the coming weeks.

IGN has a hands-on preview of NCAA Football 08 up. Still no video of the game.

IGN.com interviews Vince Young about Madden, the curse, and the Titans.

Here’s a short video of Vince Young’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to announce what everyone already knew, that he was going to be on the cover of Madden 08.

This is just the first couple of minutes from Joystiq where he’s talking about the curse, I’ll get the whole interview off my TiVo tonight and post it.

The full video of the interview is now posted below:

Update: I’m having some trouble getting the TiVo file to work in any video editor after I strip off the DRM. Works in Windows Media Player so I’ll try to upload that version in the morning if I can.

Update 2: Vince’s full appearance has now been uploaded and I replaced the video in this post.

I posted a story last night that Vince Young could be the next star on the cover of Madden and this morning the Tennessean confirmed it. Young’s agent Major Adams apparently can’t keep a secret and has confirmed to the paper that Vince will be on the game’s cover.

EA Sports would not confirm that Young would be on the cover. The cover athlete will be revealed officially tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where tonight’s guests include “Madden 2007 [sic] video game cover athlete (to be revealed on the show).”

In an amazing coincidence, Young’s marketing manager said that he’d be in California for the taping of tonight’s Jimmy Kimmel Live but wouldn’t give the reason for his appearance. I am reasonably confident that Vince was not just eliminated from Dancing with the Stars and is not in the band Silversun Pickups.

Congratulations are in order for Vince, and Longhorns/Titans fans can officially start worrying about the dreaded Madden Curse.

IGN.com lists their top 10 picks for who will be on the cover of EA Sports’ Madden 08 video game. Texas ex [tag]Vince Young[/tag] is their number two pick behind LaDainian Tomlinson and deservedly so. Young, who should have been on the cover of last year’s NCAA Football 07, is one of the game’s most marketable young stars. People like Vince and sports fans will buy products he’s involved with (and it’s not just Longhorn fans.) The 2008 cover boy should be announced sometime this week.

Tomlinson definitely has to be the favorite, in the last two years he’s put up two of the best seasons an NFL running back has ever had. LT has all sorts of untapped marketing potential, but maybe there’s a reason he hasn’t done much national stuff despite his superstar performance.

It would be awesome to see Vince on the cover of Madden, but is it actually a good thing? Are VY’s superhuman powers strong enough to overcome the Madden curse? We may get to find out this year.

Related Links

• EA Sports Madden 08 official site
• ESPN: Clues to the Cover
• Wikipedia: The Madden curse
• Vince Young is newest Campbell’s Chunky Soup “Mama’s boy”

IGN has another preview up of NCAA Football 2008. Sounds like the next gen versions will have full feature sets this year.