Ok here I am at 5am and I can't sleep because I'm on a gamer high. Tonight or this morning however you want to look at is when Madden NFL 10 was released to the public and therefore Ripley's Wal-mart held a launch party/madden bowl where the winner gets the game for free. Well ladies and gentlemen its official I am the best Madden player in Jackson County because as of 4am I have won all 6 of my games, 3 of which included what I'll call the cocky trio, and have become the Madden champion for 2009 *explosion of cheers*. Thus I have gotten a free copy of the game and a major high which may cause me to have next to no sleep tonight. *DANCES*

Before we get into how all this went down I feel it is necessary to give some background information on the team i chose...because i want to. Anyone who knows me will know I am a major cheese head so naturally I chose the greatest sports franchise on the planet THE GREENBAY PACKERS. The quarterback of this team is Aaron Rodgers while the running back and top two receivers are Ryan Grant, Greg Jennings, and Donald "THE DUKE" Driver. Finally the kicker (who played a huge part in my winning) is none other than Mason Crosby. Ok now we shall delve into the specifics of how I gave out this massive beating. Going into to this I was very nervous but as I got into my first game and scored first my nerves pretty much dissipated. My first game wasn't much of a contest I blew my opponent out and forced the mercy rule (up by 21 with the ball) with 1 min 23 sec in the fourth quarter threw 2 TD's by Rogers and 3 from Grant. The second game went pretty much the same way except with one more rushing TD and one less passing TD. Now my opponent in my third game was in a word annoying. He would curse quite loudly whenever something went wrong or went something went right or when he wanted too. He annoyed me so much that I was trailing by 7 at halftime but I got it under control and he quit with about 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter after I picked off a pass and the score was 33 to 19 in favor of me. With the halfway point complete I felt pretty good but I had developed a headache that made me think my skul was going to implode so I took my break to go buy some aspirin and load myself up with it.

Now we enter into the "Cocky Trio" saga and the creation of Super Foot. The "Cocky Trio" were three people who apparently showed up together and thought that they were just the best thing since sliced bread. And while they were better than everyone else there it seems I was not in their calculations. The trio consisted of their leader a very large dude who played the Minnesota Vikings (for Adrian Peterson the running back) and who also won the NCCA tournament a month ago (I did not attend). He seem to run the ball as much as he could unless he was trailing then he would go pass happy. He pretty much assumed he'd be in the finals from the start and did not hold back in informing everyone that would listen that he was the greatest thing ever. His second in command was another large dude named Mike. Mike used the New England Patriots (because they are the best team) and loved the slant curl to Wes Welker along with shotgun runs by Fred Taylor. The final of the trio was a blond hair dude with a goatee who used the Philadelphia Eagles (becuase they were his favorite team *nods in approvement) and ran a complicated shotgun/wildcat no huddle offense. He was while not outwardly the most cocky of the three and kept mentioning how I must be confused by his "epic offensive creation." It was the second in command that decided to start calling my kicker Mason Crosby Super Foot for how consistently my kickoffs went into the endzone and later for my long field goal makes. While the cocky trio may be cocky they were actually good people and seeing how we were there at the end I had to get along with them because they were along with me the last ones to leave.

Now onto the games. My first game of the real semi final was against the second in command Mike. Now Mike had been cruising all day and I heard him saying that after he beat me it would be just the trio that was left due to an odd number of players. Well needless to say I wasn't about to take that lying down and thus began the game where Super Foot was born. I had to receive the opening kickoff so I would not get the ball to start the second half. He started out quick but I eventually stopped him and he settled with a field goal and took an early 3 point lead. Well I had enough of this and decided to pound the rock down his giant throat and pretty much called one play for the entire half (I-Form Half back iso...a run right up the gut) and it worked great and by halftime it was a 17-3 game with me in the lead. The second half started and he immediately drove down and scored making it 17-9 after a botched two point attempt. In retrospect I play too conservatively in the third quarter and my first two possessions were miserable but i eventually managed a field goal to make it 20-9. He closed out the third quarter with another scoring drive and a successful two point attempt to make it 20-17. The first few possessions were won by the defenses and it wasn't until about there was about 4 minutes remaining that I finally scored and went for two to make it 28-17. He answered right back by breaking through three tacklers with about 2 minutes left to make it 28-25. Now the pressure was on and it was my job to run down the clock so I warmed the iso play back up and shoved it down his throat for three first downs and put the game away. One of third of the trio conquered and my toughest game of the day

The second game against the trio was against the goatee wielding third member and was the semi final final. With there being 3 people left after the final round we all flipped coins and the odd man out got a free trip to the actual final while the other two had to play. Fittingly the head honcho got the buy and left me against mister goatee. It was this game I learned of the existence of the nickname Super Foot and it made the hardest game of the tournament a little less nerve racking. This game illustrated for me the way I don't want to start a game. I won the toss and chose to kick to get the ball back after halftime and kicked it off and decided to take on his no huddle offense. This took some getting used to and the first possession for him was a methodical drive where he picked me apart all the way to a score 7-0 him. My first possession stunk and I went three and out giving him the ball back. I started to get a little better against his offense but he still was able to drive down and eventually score on a fourth and goal 14-0 him. My next two possessions weren't any better but I finally figured out a defense that could cope with run and pass well enough to stop mister no huddle and that was a nickle defense which has 4 linemen, 2 linebackers, and 5 defensive backs. Because of this we went scoreless for much of the second quarter and with about 1 minute 30 seconds left the head honcho came over and stated the obvious to me "you need to score a touchdown." As my running game was shutdown I had to pass it which I avoid most of the day because I'd rather run clock than risk turnovers but with such little time left I didn't have much of a choice. I passes myself into range of the endzone and with 8 seconds left I threw my only touchdown of the game to make it 14-7 him. I took the ball first in the second half and finally got my running game together with a few passes but I sputtered around the 45 yard line. When I went to kick my 57 yard field goal (really long) the second in command looked up and went "OOO its Super Foot." This remark was actually really funny at the time and would later lead to anytime Crosby kicked for a chorus of SUPER FOOTS to ring out. I hit the long field goal with a few "DAAANGS" from the other people in the room and the score was 14-10 him. I then get a quick interception and ran it all the way for a TD and thus finally the score was 17-14 me. With about 5 minutes in the fourth he made a great drive that was just shy of ending with a touchdown and he settled for a field goal and 4 minutes left on the clock and thus 17-17 tie. My running game came back to life with a vengeance and I methodically made it up the field and milked the clock for all it was worth while getting my self set for a 35 yard field goal attempt to win the game. At this point my hands were shaking but I managed to get the kick up and in as the clock expired to advance to the final finals. I immediately took a 5 minute break to get my nerves in check and to stop my quivering hands.

Here we are and all that stood in my way was the head honcho himself. This was game was tied in difficulty with the second in command but not nearly as hard as beating mister no huddle. He won the coin toss differed to kick and the game began. I took my first possession and threw my way up the field because he stopped my running game cold. I did extremely well and seemed to surprise him with how well I threw it (it wasn't that I couldn't throw it it was that I chose not too) and soon had a quick lead 7-0 me. He took his first posession and drove down almost as well as I did but stalled around the 30 and settle for a field goal 7-3 me. Our next two drives came up empty and the defenses held. On my fourth possession I finally found a new run play (i-form offset HB Blast) and started to pave myself a nice road to victory. With a few passes sprinkled in I made it 14-3 me off of a QB sneak at the one umph line. My defense held strong and with 1 minute 30 seconds I had a chance to put this game away before halftime. Unfortunately while I got to the one yard line it was too long for me to risk it on fourth down and settle for a chip shot of a field goal making it 17-3 me at halftime. His first drive after halftime was a pitiful 3 and out however I got a pass picked off due to my stupidity and he took advantage making it 17-10 me. We both turned it into a defense struggle for the remainder of the third and a good portion of the fourth quarter. With four minutes left in the fourth I finally mounted a drive that got me just in field goal range (58 yards longest of the tourney) and as the chorus of SUPER FOOT rang out I nailed the clutch field goal making it 20-10 me. This made it immensely difficult to comeback from with there being only 3 minutes left and after an interception the head honcho who was becoming increasingly annoyed with how "stupid" (excuses excuses) he was playing almost threw his controller in frustration. I proceed to run out the clock with runs and the occasional pass and those last 3 minutes disappeared therefore crowning me champion of Madden for Jackson County and the proud (and extremely giddy) owner of Madden NFL 10 for free.

I know this was a long entry and I hardly think too many people will bother to read it all but I'm incredibly pumped and its now 6:06 am Eddie out. ^_^