EA to put Favre on Jets and produce updated cover for Madden 09

In case you haven’t heard, Brett Favre is now the former quarterback of the Green Bay Packers — he was traded to the New York Jets late last night for a conditional fourth-round draft pick. You may be reading this and wondering why it’s been posted on a videogame blog. Well, Mr. Favre happened to have been selected by EA as the cover athlete for Madden NFL 09. But now that he’s been traded to Gang Green, what to do?

MTV Multiplayer got word from an EA spokesperson on the publisher’s plans now that the game’s current cover has been rendered obsolete by the trade. Here’s what they’ve decided on:

• Madden NFL 09 will hit stores on Aug 12 with Brett Favre on the cover in his Green Bay Packers uniform.
• We do not plan to re-issue packaging, but WILL offer a free downloadable cover in the coming days on easports.com featuring Brett Favre in a Jets uniform. Fans can print this new cover out and insert it into the case of Madden NFL 09.
• We’ll have a roster update available on August 11 with Brett Favre on the NY Jets. The game ships with Brett on an all-time greats team, but with the roster update that will be downloadable when product is available at retail, Brett Favre will be the starting QB for the New York Jets. The roster update is not mandatory – unless you are planning an online head to head game, or online league.

So, let’s recap: all retail copies of Madden NFL 09 will feature Favre in a Packers uniform on the box; EA will be providing updated cover artwork online that gamers can download, print out, and insert into their cases; and the disc’s roster will have Favre on an “NFL Greats” team, but a day-one roster update will be available to make him the Jets’ first-string QB.

All in all, this seems to be the best way to go about solving this issue. So much for Favre being the first retired player to grace the cover of a Madden game, eh? As for the trade, I’ve talked to a number of Jets fans who are understandably ecstatic about it — but I wonder, have they considered the possible (likely?) adverse effects of a Madden curse transfer to their team?

[Via MTV Multiplayer — thanks, Joe!]