That’s it, put your money on Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLV. The word comes from the Madden NFL 11 simulation of the Super Bowl, which has correctly guessed six of the last seven winners. That’s as good a record as any sports broadcaster and better than a few oddsmakers over the same time period. An EA Sports simulation also predicted Spain’s World Cup victory.

Perhaps the only people who take Madden NFL more seriously than gamers are real NFL players. In addition to pestering Madden designers about ratings, players often compete to see who has the most virtual game. The Madden Bowl pits real athletes play Madden NFL against each other to determine who truly has game.

NFL players may start a petition for Drew Brees to appear on the cover of Madden NFL every year. The Madden Curse superstition suggests that something horrible will happen to a player appearing on the game’s cover. Athletes including Brett Favre and Michael Vick have suffered serious injuries the year they appeared on Madden covers.

Barely awake this morning, I happened to check the App Store to see if Tomb Raider, err…Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was up yet and I happen to notice a push message on my iPad. Scrabble has dropped from $9.99 to $0.99. As it turns out, EA is having a massive sale on their iOS wares, at least a most amount of them…

Toys R’ Us has not advertised this Black Friday deal, but several sources have confirmed it’s for real. You can get several new releases for $5 if you purchase one of the other titles on the list at full price. There’s great titles on there including Halo:Reach. There’s also a Cabela hunting game, but I am not here to judge anyone’s gaming tastes. The sale is from Thursday night at 10 p.m. – 1 p.m. Black Friday (November 26, 2010)

According to EA Sports’ observations, the Dallas Cowboys are still “America’s Team” despite a horrendous 1-7 start.

EA’s numbers indicated the Cowboys are the team most used in online play. The Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets round out the Top 5. The least popular team is the Arizona Cardinals.

That’s not a big shock. Arizona is a relatively small media market. Teams such as the Cowboys enjoy national prominence even when they’re losing. Seriously, watch any sports channel and see how much pub the Cowboys and Vikings get. A team such as Arizona only gets media attention when it’s winning. For the Cardinals, that is not often.

Randy Moss is giving the Madden NFL 11 design team a serious workout.

Downloadable roster updates take care of the numerous changes that go on during the season, from big trades to injuries. Now reporting to the Tennessee Titans, Moss is suiting up for his third football team of the year. His overall rating will be a 93, down two points as he is suffering a down year so far. It’s hard to learn all those playbooks in a month’s time, after all.

Donovan McNabb, whose benching would be a bigger story if not for Moss, took an eight point hit to his stamina rating. That’s because Coach Mike Shanahan said he benched McNabb due to “cardiovascular conditioning.”

A recent Madden NFL 11 patch unlocks several new uniforms. There has been some confusion on how to get them once you’ve downloaded the latest Madden update.

It turns out Xbox 360 owners need to download the latest update for Madden’s card-based “Ultimate Team” mode to unlock the new uniforms. Ultimate Team is a popular game mode but there are many Madden players who have never touched it. Thus, they were left wondering where the new unis were.

Madden NFL 11 recently made headlines for not including long snappers. At the rate mishaps are befalling NFL superstars who appear on the Madden cover, EA Sports may be asking a long snapper to help promote the game next year.

It’s almost impossible to play any position in the NFL and not get banged up, especially quarterback. Drew Brees is on the cover of Madden NFL 11, so any injury he suffers is going to undergo even more scrutiny. ESPN’s Ed Werder reported that Brees has a minor MCL sprain in his right knee and will need to wear a brace for the rest of the season.