Now that the pro football season has officially ended, EA Sports has given us the last roster update for Madden NFL 10, a game initially released August 2009. This update was the subject of some controversy as it reverses an earlier decision made by EA.

For the first time in the series’ history, EA Sports opted to remove players who retired after the season in a roster update. Previously, those players would have remained in the game and the changes would have been left until Madden NFL 11.

Removed players included Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner and New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau. There was a lot of feedback from Madden fans who disagreed with the decision. In this case, EA Sports listened and agreed that athletes who played the 2009-2010 should remain in the game whether or not they retired after the season ended.

Football fans have known for a while that Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has near superhuman athletic ability. But this season he may have proved himself stronger than one of sports’ most infamous curses. Fitzgerald shares the Madden NFL 10 cover with Pittsburgh cornerback Troy Polamalu, who got injured in the first game of the season. Polamalu has battled injury all season and the Pittsburgh defense has gotten so bad they lost to the lowly Cleveland Browns

Fitzgerald suffered an injury in a national TV loss to the 49ers that saw his leg bend in a very awkward fashion. But it turns out he suffered only a sprained ligament and a bone contusion. Fitz played against the Detroit Lions Sunday (December 20, 2009) and appeared to suffer no ill effects. He has 1,027 yards and 11 touchdowns, so it has been a very good 2009 season so far.

EA Sports has revealed some of the madness that will ensue in its Madden Arcade downloadable title coming to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live this week.

This downloadable title comes to PSN November 24, 2009 and XBLA November 25, 2009. It costs $14.99 on PSN or 1200 Microsoft Points on XBLA.

Teams will have the opportunity to receive powerups – called Game Changers – before every play and can choose to use them right then or save them for later.

Click through for a list…

The release date for Madden NFL Arcade, the five-on-five NBA Jam-style game with wild powerups and a 60-yard field, has been moved up by Electronic Arts.

EA’s Madden franchise often comes under fire for a perceived lack of innovation but here’s a feature that certainly promises some unique wrinkles.

Madden NFL 10 will soon contain a game mode that will combine elements of fantasy football and trading card gaming.

Madden Ultimate Team is a free downloadable addition on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network coming January 2010. In this game players will collect virtual packs of cards ranging from “platinum” to “bronze.”

This is the first time Electronic Arts’ popular Madden series of football games has had two athletes share the cover. Does that mean both Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu are doomed ? The Pittsburgh Steelers defensive standout has already gotten shelved.

Will Fitz get spared since the Madden cover has already claimed one athlete? Or will it take two NFL superstars to satiate the curse’s eternal hunger?

The gaming industry’s most prolific superstition didn’t take long to reach center stage in the 2009 NFL season.

Athletes who have graced the cover of Electronic Arts’ best selling Madden NFL 10 football simulation have traditionally fallen on some hard times.

Pittsburgh cornerback Troy Polamalu, famous for his big plays and long flowing hair, is one of the Madden NFL 10 cover athletes. He sprained his MCL (Medial Collateral ligament) in the league’s season opening game, putting the Madden Curse on display for a nationwide audience. The injury could keep Polamalu out of the lineup for as long as six weeks.

Madden NFL 10. That’s the official name of this year’s edition of the now ubiquitous football game. For grammar snobs, professional media and a lot of uninitiated game-purchasing parents, it’s also a point of grand annoyance.

First, consider the grammatical aspects of the name. To properly abbreviate a year you place an apostrophe where letters or, in this case, numbers are missing. That’d be the “20″ portion of 2010 making it ’10 (instead of 10′ as many people seem to prefer). Otherwise, sans apostrophe, it’s the number after 9 and before 11, not after 2009 and before 2011. That’s a huge difference (by at least 2000 years). This is also the point that frustrates the bajeesus out of non-gaming professional copy editors across the states.

EA kind of has the right idea with Madden NFL 10 for Wii, even if you don’t agree with the results. It simply can’t look as good as it does on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation, so why bother trying? Instead, they’ve rebuilt the game from the ground up to give it a new, stylized look. I’m okay with this. In fact, I like it a lot, but keep in mind that I come from time when a medieval warrior was depicted by a block carrying around an emoticon. Things that don’t look real can still look good, after all, as long as the design is sharp. It is, straight through to the new menu navigation system.

Electronic Arts often comes under fire for being an evil empire bent on game industry domination. I love EA’s games, including the annual incremental Madden update. There is a lot to like about this year’s package, including the new tackling system that makes plays completely “unscripted.” That brings us to the always slippery slope of downloadable content.

There are two schools of thought about DLC.

The glass half-full take is, “Yea! New content for my favorite game at a reasonable price!”

The glass half-empty view is, “Why should I pay more money on top of the $60 I already spent for content the designers created months ago and ultimately deemed not worth putting in the game?”