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.

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?”

No sooner than I write that Michael Vick isn’t in the Madden NFL 10 roster update, the Philadelphia Eagles sign him and end all the speculation.

EA game designer and ratings czar Donny Moore said Vick will don an Eagles uniform in the August 19, 2009, update for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Moore talked with the First Cuts blog about re-integrating Vick into the world’s bestselling football game.

EA game designer Donny Moore answered one of the big questions among Madden faithful on his Twitter: Former NFL star Michael Vick is not included in the game’s first roster update. Vick is still trying to find a new NFL team after his release from prison on charges connected to a dogfighting ring.

“It’s official,” Moore tweeted. “Michael Vick not in Madden NFL 10 Roster Update #1… once he signs with a team, we will get him in there ASAP.”

There has been much speculation about how EA Sports would handle the Vick situation…

For many fans, Seattle Seahawks receiver T.J. Houshmanzadeh will forever be known as the receiver that meant a guaranteed fantasy championship to the guy in that classic commercial. Of course, he’s had to spend the past couple of years getting referred to as “Who’s Your Mama,” the moniker the unfortunate owner in that commercial hung on T.J.

Now the receiver is getting publicity because of his plans to boycott the latest Madden installment over his in-game player rating. Every year a few players take issue with their Madden NFL rating but Houshmanzadeh may be the first to take it to this extreme.

Gamertell got some face time with the art director of Madden 10 for the Wii, Tim Spangler. Tim has worked on pretty much every EA sports title, but this is the first title he worked on from start to finish.

According to Spangler, new Wii-only features will be highlighted in this release including the ability to actually throw a pass using the WiiMote, rather then hitting a button to do so. The game also features co-op huddle-up mode where the second player can…