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A dark cloud hangs over the potential for a new season of football -- at least, in the real NFL stadiums. EA Sports’ Tiburon Studio continues developing Madden NFL 12 for all platforms, ensuring all the NFL teams and players will be active on the virtual gridiron by late summer."Fans of Madden NFL will not have their seasons interrupted regardless of when the labor issues are resolved," said Rob Semsey, director of public relations, EA Sports. "EA Sports will release Madden NFL 12 in August, complete with exciting new features and product innovation that will allow NFL fans to fill their desire for football."

While the NFLPA has decertified, its agreement with EA Sports still provides for the use of the group license that allows the developer to use real players on the teams. Team and league symbols are licensed separately and therefore exempt from the current labor dispute.
The 2011 NFL Draft will proceed as planned at Radio City Music Hall in New York from April 28-30, the result of a provision in the current CBA. All players selected in this year’s draft will be included in their new team uniforms for the new Madden game.

During the draft, teams will be allowed to trade draft selections, but not players. And undrafted players will not be able to sign with teams, or appear in the new Madden game, until a new CBA is agreed upon.

The Madden franchise is an integral part of Electronic Arts annual revenue. The football franchise has sold more than 90 million copies since it launched in 1988. Last year, Madden NFL 11 sold more than 5.5 million copies in the U.S., according to The NPD Group.

Michael Pachter, video game analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, believes the longer the lockout drags on, the more likely it is that NFL fans will become alienated. He said while Madden is a great experience for gamers, its sales are definitely correlated to the underlying popularity of the NFL, so if the popularity of the NFL suffers, it’s likely that sales of Madden will suffer.

“It’s still too early to call, since the lockout is happening in March and Madden launches in August,” said Pachter. “That’s a lot of time to fix things, although most commentators don’t sound very optimistic. My guess is that a complete cancellation of the NFL season would cost Madden around 50 percent of sales, and a delay of the season would be far less impactful. If the season is only delayed a week or two and fans aren’t alienated, there would be only a very small impact; if delayed through Thanksgiving (when the holiday selling season begins in earnest), the impact would be far greater.”

New Orleans Saints Super Bowl champion and Madden NFL 11 cover athlete Drew Brees was among 10 players who filed antitrust lawsuits Friday to prevent the owners from locking out players.

Semsey said that EA Sports will reveal information about the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete later this month.

Last March, EA Sports partnered with Doritos for a “Change the Game” promotion to allow gamers to choose the Madden cover athlete from a trio of NFL Pro Bowlers, including Brees, the Indianapolis Colts’ Reggie Wayne and the Minnesota Vikings’ Jared Allen. EA could offer a similar program this year.

EA Sports already announced a “U Want ME” promotion for fans to vote on the cover athlete for NCAA Football 12, which will ship this July across all platforms. Gamers can choose from 2011 NFL Draft candidates Nick Fairley (defensive tackle, Auburn University), Jake Locker (quarterback, University of Washington), Mark Ingram, running back, University of Alabama), and DeMarco Murray (running back, University of Oklahoma).

EA Sports is using Facebook for the voting, which closes April 4, and has seen a surge in Facebook fans since launching the contest. The game publisher could take a similar approach with the new Madden, especially since it lags behind NCAA Football on Facebook.

One new feature for Madden has already been announced. Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears, will make its video game debut in Madden NFL 12. Licensing issues with stadium owner Chicago Park District have kept the official stadium out of video games until now.
While that will make Bears fans happy, the real question remains whether the actual Soldier Field -- and the other 31 NFL stadiums -- will see any football action this season.

San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker is expected to sit out two to four weeks after straining his left calf muscle in a win over Memphis.

The Spurs announced Monday that their star point guard won't accompany them to Memphis and Cleveland this week. It will also leave the NBA-best Spurs without Parker for their first game against the Miami Heat on Friday.

Parker left Sunday's game in the second quarter when he collided with Grizzlies guard Mike Conley. He did not return.Mike Bibby reached a buyout agreement with the Washington Wizards, freeing him from the last-place team after only two games.

The point guard agreed to give up his entire $6.2-million salary for next season and was waived Monday. The move came on the eve of the deadline for players to be released in order to be eligible for a playoff roster if they sign with another team.

The Golden State Warriors reached a buyout deal with forward Troy Murphy and put him on waivers.

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Antawn Jamison will probably sit out the remainder of the season because of a broken finger.

Former North Carolina and Lakers star James Worthy was one of seven men announced as new members of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Also elected were former Virginia center Ralph Sampson, former St. John's star Chris Mullin, coaches Bob Knight and Eddie Sutton, and contributors Joe Vancisin and Eddie Einhorn.

Induction will take place in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 20.

ETC.

Redskins release Portis after seven years

Running back Clinton Portis was released by the Washington Redskins, ending a charismatic and sometimes contentious seven-year stay that, for a while at least, made him the face of the franchise.

Injuries and money led to Coach Mike Shanahan's decision. Portis had played in only 13 games over the last two seasons because of a severe concussion in 2009 and a torn groin muscle in 2010.

Portis, 29, was scheduled to make $8.3 million next season, and Shanahan made it clear at the NFL combine that the Redskins wouldn't keep him at that price.http://fearheller.blog.co.uk/

James Blake, Vania King, Jill Craybas and Sania Mirza were given wild cards into the main draws for the BNP Paribas Open, which begins next week at Indian Wells.

Six rising players were also given wild cards: Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Ryan Harrison, Bernard Tomic, Coco Vandeweghe and Christina McHale.

Qualifying draw wild cards were given to 1999 BNP Paribas Open champion Mark Philippoussis, Ryan Sweeting, USC's Steve Johnson and Greg Ouellette, a former Southeastern Conference player of the year, and for the women, Sabine Lisicki, Puerto Rican junior Monica Puig and Americans Madison Keys, Madison Brengle and Maria Sanchez.

An NFL wide receiver was at the scene of a downtown Indianapolis homicide early Saturday morning and was arrested on preliminary Cheap NFL Jerseys
charges of public intoxication and resisting law enforcement.

San Diego Chargers wide receiver Legedu Naanee, 27, was arrested at about 3:20 a.m. Saturday near Meridian and Jackson streets, following a homicide police were investigating. Police reports don’t indicate he was involved in the shooting that left one person dead and another seriously injured.

According to police reports, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police encountered Naanee while doing crowd control at Meridian and Jackson streets, following the shooting . Police say Naanee began walking into the crime scene, which was marked with yellow police tape. Police tried stopping him, when Naanee refused and said, “Why are you being an (expletive)?” Police continued to ask him to walk the other way, the report says, but Naanee kept repeating his comment.http://fearheller.blog.co.uk/

After Naanee’s repeated refusal to leave the area, and after police smelled alcohol on his breath, Naanee was arrested, according to reports. But when police tried handcuffing him, he resisted. Police sprayed Naanee with pepper spray twice, but he continued to resist.

Naanee was eventually arrested, after which he said to police, “Do you know who I am?” reports said. He also told police, “I am an NFL player, and I am going to sue your (expletive).”

I don't think it's an accurate portrayal of who I am." It's really not an accurate portrayal," Grammer said during a Friday appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

"They're saying awful things about me and it's very hurtful, it's very hurtful. You know, if I would do it again, it would be to try and change my image and try and turn it around and have people see the other side of me they don't see on TV."

Grammer also reiterated her prior denial of recent reports that she has already decided not to return for a second season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which is still airing its first season on Bravo and has actually not been formally renewed by the network yet
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"Haven't decided," she told DeGeneres, adding that she still has "two weeks" to think the matter over.

According to Grammer, viewers have only seen a small portion of her on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' first season.

"I mean we film like 100 hours and then it's edited down to or cut down to approximately 43-45 minutes, so there's a lot that the audience doesn't get to see. So, you know, it'd be nice to just round out my character... round out me a little bit more," Grammer explained.

However, the reality TV star admitted she "absolutely" worries her attempt to rehab her image might not succeed even if she returns for another season.

In addition, Grammer acknowledged her on-air feuds with fellow The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards -- whom she said she had only met once before the show began filming -- are an accurate portrayal of their relationship.

"Off the camera, I think we tend to get along, but I'm not going to say it's for show, because these are, you know, real things that are happening in our lives," Grammer said.

That on-camera tension will apparently also carry over to the season's reunion show, which Grammer and the rest of her fellow The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills stars filmed earlier this week.

"It is a doozy, it's very emotional," Grammer teased.

The reality TV star also said her relationship with estranged husband Kelsey Grammer --- whom she filed for divorce from last summer after he allegedly began an affair with current fiancee Kayte Walsh while The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was still filming its first season -- remains strained.

"We don't speak at all... everything I find out is through the press with him or he writes me an email or a text. I just think it's really important for us to speak if we're going to raise children -- we need to co-parent," Grammer explained.

While Grammer claims she only learned of her husband's alleged infidelity in June when a friend told her about his behavior, she told DeGeneres she began to sense her marriage was in trouble when -- as The Real Housewives viewers saw in one of the show's November episodes -- he seemed standoffish when she visited him in New York City for the premiere of the Broadway play he was starring in.

"Wasn't that an awkward scene? I was so excited to see him. I didn't know at that time, but I knew that there was something wrong in our marriage, because he was growing distant," she said.

"He wasn't really returning my phone calls and he's the type of guy that would call like 10 times a day. He's a very doting husband and we had a good marriage. So, I felt him moving away from me during this time."