After more than 8.5 million votes since the start of the voting competition on March 21 for Madden NFL 13's Cover Athlete, the pool has been reduced to the final 16 athletes. Every week, voters will determine the winner in head-to-head, seeded, single-elimination brackets until the winner is announced on ESPN's SportsNation on April 25 at 5pm EST.
Several notable match-ups in Round 1 have been Patrick Willis (seeded 11th) defeating Matt Forte (seeded 6th), Calvin Johnson handily defeating Dwayne Bowe, and Arian Foster also narrowly beat out Tim Tebow.
Here is the current bracket breakdown (number between parentheses is their seeded position):
LeSean McCoy (5) vs. Larry Fitzgerald (4)
Patrick Willis (11) vs. Maurice Jones-Drew (7)
Darrelle Revis (3) vs. Victor Cruz (2)
Aaron Rodgers (1) vs. Marshawn Lynch (8)
Ray Rice (5) vs. Drew Brees (4)
Calvin Johnson (6) vs. Arian Foster (3)
Jared Allen (7) vs. Rob Gronkowski (2)
Fans can cast their vote for Round 2 at www.espn.com/MaddenVote and can watch analysis and commentary on SportsNation at 5pm EST every Wednesday.
