The cover of the Madden games used to be a place to showcase the league's top players and curse them to a horrible season. Now, it seems that EA might let money determine who graces the cover of the next installment in the football series. Specifically, the players' money.

EA Sports prez Peter Moore told Bloomberg News yesterday that they may hold an auction to determine the front cover of Madden. The highest bidder would become the cover athlete and all of the proceeds would go to charity, specifically the United Way.

"Our research tells us we don't see a huge up-tick or down-tick depending on who's on the cover -- they're buying Madden, Moore said. Okay, fair enough. It doesn't make much of a difference whether they choose Brady or Peyton - but even if the cover athlete isn't your favorite player or on your preferred team, he's usually good. It's a little embarrassing if you've got Ron Dayne on the cover or some shit.

The league's elite players are paid well and one of them could likely win the auction but what's to stop a crappy, overpaid player from buying the cover? Yeah, yeah, it's all for charity, great. All I'm saying is, I don't want to see some first-round bust blowing his huge bonus money to get himself on the cover. Not just because it's a waste of money, but because I just don't want a Ted Ginn Jr. edition of Madden. This whole cockeyed plan needs some safeguards.