I wish I could say that this was unexpected.
In what comes as a shock to absolutely no-one, Rob Gronkowski has beaten Brandon Lloyd soundly in Round One of the Madden Curse Cover Tournament, taking in a whopping 85% of the votes to Lloyd's 15. I'd like to think that the other 15% came from Pats fans everywhere, but we'll never know.
While it would have been nice to see a first round upset that sent Gronk back on Spring Break earlier than expected, there's no need to panic just yet - we all knew that there was no way that Lloyd was going to beat out Gronkowski in the first round. So, it's on to Round Two, pitting him up against the 7-seed, Jared Allen, who eked out a 58% to 42% victory over DeMarcus Ware in Round One.The winner of the Gronk vs. Allen showdown will then move on and challenge the winner of the Arian Foster vs. Calvin Johnson matchup. And if I were a betting man, I would say odds are good that Gronk is going to take out Allen to move on to Round Three against Johnson (Foster is a beast, but it's tough to beat out a receiver that goes by Megatron). Johnson will, thankfully, present a very tough matchup for Gronk, and that could be our first real chance for progress. However, the sooner we can get Gronk the hell out of this tournament, the better off we'll all be. Click here to vote for Allen and keep Gronk off the Madden '13 cover.
The good news is that, while Gronk is still a favorite to make the Final Four, there are still some pretty big names that he will have to go through to get there. Should he have the misfortune of taking out Allen and then Megatron, he'll still have to face a combination of Ray Rice, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers to get to the finals, where he will have to go up against the likes of Cam Newton, LeSean McCoy, or Maurice Jones-Drew. So there is still plenty of time and there are still plenty of obstacles in the way.
But I personally would not like to leave it up to Fate, which has not been shining its light kindly over New England the past couple of seasons. We all need to get out there and vote. And you you vote for, other than not Gronk, is up to you. Last week, I campaigned hard to get Patriots Nation to endorse Tim Tebow, hoping that he would be able to use his magical powers to break the Madden Curse and restore order to the video game world. As usual, I once again proved myself to be useless, as Tebow, was bested by Arian Foster and is no longer in the running. Obviously the Good Lord has plans for Tebow that don't involve getting injured this season, most likely in the form of taking Sanchez's starting job away from him mid-season and sending the entire city of New York into a giant tailspin. And honestly, that's just fine with me. But now that Tebow is out, it's time for me to back another candidate, and I'd like to fully endorse Darrelle Revis for Madden '13. Revis is one of the best, if not the best, cornerback in the league, and he totally deserves it.
So let's make it happen.