Vince Young, The Curious Madden Choice
A lot of ink (do computers have ink inside of them?) has been spilled about EA's decision to place Vince Young on the cover of Madden 2008. Forget about the curse, I think the downfall of the game's cover boy is just logical (if you're coming off a season so good that you're on the game's cover -- probably the best player of the year, in fact -- what are the odds that you can go anywhere but down?). By that logic, Young is fine. Although he had a better-than-expected season, it's not like there's no room for improvement. I mean, it's been a day since Young was officially announced as the game's cover boy, and he hasn't been shot in the face yet. As far as I'm concerned, that's a good sign.
Maybe that's why they made the decision to feature Young. I certainly don't see LaDainian Tomlinson or Peyton Manning topping last season, so why expose someone rounding the top of the hill when you can use a player who's still climbing?
That's gotta be the reason they chose Young, because it's not for his potential as a public face for the league, at least based on last night's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's show. Nothing against Young -- I enjoy watching him play and by all accounts he appears to be a sensible young man -- but he's also not exactly spokesman material. He didn't seem comfortable under the semi-bright lights of Kimmel's show (imagine if he went on a show people actually watched). Also, methinks he lied about being able to rap, and was caught by Kimmel. But that's neither here nor there.
I did, however, like the way Young handled the inevitable question about being snubbed in the draft by the Texans. After curiously asking if the show was live (maybe an F-bomb was on the way?), Young's assertion that he's playing on the original Houston team was good -- clever, sneakily spiteful yet maintaining happiness in his current situation. Let's see if he's got that sense of humor when his leg literally snaps at the knee.
