Madden Curse? What Madden Curse? Calvin Johnson Chasing History vs. Falcons on Saturday Night

Tonight's Monday Night Football game is being played on Saturday night (since Monday is Christmas eve), and it's a huge match-up for two reasons. 1) Atlanta is chasing the No. 1 seed in the NFC postseason. 2) Calvin Johnson Jr. is chasing down Jerry Rice's coveted receiving record.

Sure, a win for the 12-2 Falcons would clinch a first round bye and the No. 1 seed in the postseason. But I'm more intrigued by watching the Detroit Lions' (4-10) wideout Calvin Johnson Jr. possibly break Jerry Rice's single-season receiving yards record.

With 1,667 yards through 14 games this season, the sixth year pro Johnson is just 15 yards away from setting a career-high of 1,681 yards, which he set last season in his monstrous breakout year that landed him the coveted Madden cover for the 2013 video game.

But more importantly, Johnson Jr. finds himself just 182 yards away from breaking Rice's record of 1,848 yards for the 49ers in 1995. Johnson set career-highs in receptions (96), yards and TDs (16) last season, but has already broken that mark in receptions (106 through 14 games) and is about to break his career-high in yards tonight as well.

Clearly out of the playoff hunt with a 4-10 record out of the NFC North, Johnson's record chase seems to be all that the Lions' have left to fight for this season, so there's no doubt Matt Stafford will be gunning for him. And the Falcons secondary will be paying extra attention––well, obviously a guy of Johnson's talent will be double-teamed whether there's a record in reach or not.

In the midst of all these young quarterbacks that have entered the spotlight this season, it's refreshing to see records such as single-season receiving yards, rushing yards and sacks in reach of being broken all within the same season.

Both San Fran's defensive end Aldon Smith and Houston's J.J. Watt are at 19.5 sacks this season and are just 3.5 shy of breaking Michael Strahan's single-season record of 22.5 with two games to play. There will be more on that particular record tomorrow morning. For now, enjoy tonight's game!

All-Out Blitz's prediction: Falcons win 35-21, and Calvin Johnson inches closer to Rice's record with 125 yards and a TD.

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Peyton Hillis, Michael Vick two finalists for Madden Cover

The Cleveland Browns haven't been to the playoffs since 2002, and have had just three winning seasons since 1990. But, when it comes to Cleveland's fan base, they are as strong as ever.

With the 32-player tournament to determine the NFL player to grace the cover of Madden '12 down to just two players, Cleveland's crazy fans managed to vote their running back, Peyton Hillis, past Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers.

Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback Michael Vick seemed to be an early favorite to win it all, and I still think he may very do just that by beating out Hillis. Either way, just getting this far is quite the accomplishment for the 240-pound bull-of-a-running back.

Hillis never rushed for more than 348 yards and six touchdowns in a given season throughout his college career at Arkansas, and was a seventh round pick (227th overall) of the Denver Broncos in 2008.

In Denver's system, Hillis ran for 397 yards and six touchdowns on 81 carries (4.9 YPC) in two seasons. Last off-season he was moved to Cleveland in the Brady Quinn trade, and made an impact on his new team right away.

Hillis ran for a touchdown in each of his first four games, which included two games of 100-plus yards. By season's end, Hillis had racked up a career-high 1,177 yards and 11 touchdowns on 270 carries.

We all know of Vick's story, as well.

Released from home confinement on July 20, 2009, Vick returned to the league with the Philadelphia Eagles that August. With a limited role, it didn't seem like Vick would ever fully return to Pro Bowl form having been out of the league since 2006.

That was, until this past season. After an injury to starter Kevin Kolb during a week one matchup with the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, Vick took over as starter and never looked back. Before his jail time, Vick was known as an inaccurate passer who was always looking to run. But, apparently he worked on this problem while playing in jail(?) because he then proceeded to set career-highs in yards (3,018), touchdown passes (21) and completion percentage (62.6).

Of course, he still managed to wow everyone with his legs, running 676 yards and a career-high nine touchdowns. Vick's Eagles were knocked off by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in the opening round of the playoffs, but that does not take anything away from Vick's phenomenal season. Like I said with Ben Roethlisberger and his off-field issues...winning seems to cure all. Apparently everyone forgets how much they used to hate this guy?

Unfortunately I expect Vick will win the voting, and I say unfortunately because I would love to see Hillis win cover athlete.

The winner will be announced on April 27 on ESPN2 at 4 P.M. Stay tuned.

Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

Why Tom Brady should grace the cover of Madden '12

Love him or hate him, Tom Brady is one of the most successful signal callers in NFL history.

With three Super Bowl rings, Brady is among the likes of Joe Montana (four rings), Terry Bradshaw (four rings), Troy Aikman (three rings), John Elway (two rings) and Roger Staubach (2 rings) in the category of most successful quarterbacks.

Brady currently holds numerous passing records--including most touchdown passes in a single season with 50--and has already been elected to six Pro Bowls and two first-team All Pro squads.

At age 33, Brady still has a couple of solid seasons ahead of him and is approximately 6,000 passing yards away from surpassing Montana in that category.

Brady just won his second career league MVP award this past season after putting up 36 passing touchdowns, 3,900 yards, just four interceptions, and a rating of 111.0. His Patriots were one-and-done in the postseason, but that doesn't diminish his regular season accomplishments one bit.

After all this I just have one question, why has he yet to appear on the cover of Madden?

When you take a look at the 32-player "Madden '12 cover bracket," big names such as Brady and Peyton Manning have been left off. Rather, some of the not-so-well known guys (such as Danny Woodhead and a few offensive lineman) are representing their respective teams in the process.

This has been explained a few different times, but basically EA Sports is trying to give the non-superstars a chance at the Madden cover, which I certainly support. But, I don't know if it's really the best idea if they are trying to rack up big bucks like usual. Maybe they aren't this year, who knows, but I do know that I highly doubt that the game will break the record for most money made on a video game.

In my opinion, I almost think they are trying to keep Brady and Manning away because they want to keep the NFL's 'prettyboys' away from this so-called Madden Curse. If so, they are greatly succeeding at doing so.

Either way, Brady wont be on the cover again this year and I really think he should be on the cover at some point in his career.

I'm not one of those guys who is in love with Tom Brady, first of all because I am not a Patriots fan, but I'm not a Brady-basher either. Too many people have been hating on Brady because he's just seen as one of those prettyboy quarterbacks, even though prettyboy quarterbacks of the past (Montana, Namath, Marino just to name a few) were absolutely loved by the fans.

It just doesn't seem right to me. Yes, Brady is very well-protected by his offensive line, and maybe the league officials throw a few more penalty flags on plays where he ends up on the ground. But the truth of the matter is, we are witnessing one of the purest passers in the history of the league.

Fans need to start appreciating that fact, because he very well could go down in history as the NFL's greatest quarterbacks of all-time by the end of his career.

I did my homework and looked up "Tom Brady and the Madden cover" just to see if he happened to pass up the opportunity to grace the cover in the past, and I didn't find a single thing. It looks as if EA Sports is trying to keep him away from the "curse."

If my name was Tom Brady, I know I wouldn't be scared of a silly curse.

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