It may go overlooked, but folks can share their Madden highlights on the Web. But first you have to register to the EA Sports World. This was a cool feature that Electronic Arts Tiburon implented in NCAA 08 last year.

Once you set up your account and dress up your avatar. (I guess men like to play with dolls action figures as well.) You can upload the videos to the Web and share with friends. Just going to the Manage Highlights in the My Madden section. Find your saved highlights and you’ll see an option to upload.

It takes a while, but it’s well worth it when you need proof that you scored that 99-yard touchdown run against your buddy. And yes, that’s my San Diego Chargers beating up on the Broncos.

It’s a cool feature that kind of got buried beneath the whole Virtual Training thing. We also posted a review of the game earlier today. It can be found on the main review site at ContraCostaTimes.com. We have a feature coming up on the 20-year history of Madden on Thursday. Enjoy.

As you probably know one of the major new features in Madden NFL 09 is the inclusion of online leagues. Up to 32 people can join a league either with real teams or a variation of a fantasy draft. It sounds very cool, this IGN interview from April has all the gritty details.

What I’m getting at here is: Who’s up for a Gamester league? If enough people want to give it a shot I’ll run it, if you want in let me know in the comments.

I hate Brett Favre.

Not just because I’m a Niners fan. The man has ruined the preseason for me. NFL Live is The Favre Report, Sirius NFL Radio is All About Favre and last night’s game on ESPN was Brett Favre vs. Brett Favre at Favre Field on Monday Night Favre. I’m sick of it and I want it to stop. If I never hear about the man again it would be too soon.

That said, I have a duty to the readers. So if any of you are Jets fans or sticklers for accuracy, this link will let you download a replacement Madden cover with that jerk in the correct uniform.

Or if you don’t even want to see him on your game, here’s an unofficial Frank Gore and here’s a JaMarcus Russell.

Now nobody mention him ever again.

I’m at Bowzer’s Pizza in downtown Berkeley. They have two games of Madden NFL going. The crowd is raucous as fans wait for the game to come out.

There are 14 players in the tournament. To speed things along, the GameStop employees customized the games with two-minute quarters. Everyone is playing for $15 gift certificates that are awarded to the first- and second-place finishers.

But as it gets closer to midnight, I don’t know how much longer people will want to wait.

Note: I’m posting this on Gieson’s behalf due to technical difficulties.

Well, the Madden launch is only a couple of hours away. For folks who need to get the game day of launch, there’s a couple of shops around the Bay Area holding midnight launches. The events will vary. Some will have Madden tournaments; others will have food and drinks along with some prizes.

Game Crazies around the Bay Area are holding tournaments with the winners having the honor of purchasing the game first. The attendees will also have a chance to win AMEX gift cards that range from $500 to $1,000. But the biggest prize of all is the Super Bowl tickets the company is giving away in a nationwide drawing.

Here are area Game Crazy stores where you can celebrate your “Maddenoliday”

• GAME CRAZY - 4383 CLAYTON RD, CONCORD, CA 94521
• GAME CRAZY - 2931 HARBOR ST STE A, PITTSBURG, CA 94565
• GAME CRAZY - 3525 MAC ARTHUR BLVD, OAKLAND, CA 94619
• GAME CRAZY - 832 SOUTHAMPTON RD, BENICIA, CA 94510
• GAME CRAZY - 20923 REDWOOD RD, CASTRO VALLEY, CA 94546
• GAME CRAZY - 6660 LONE TREE WAY STE 7, BRENTWOOD, CA

I’ll probably stop by my neighborhood GameStop in downtown Berkeley. Store manager Sam Fugate is working with Bowzer’s Pizza a few blocks down to hold a Madden tournament and a couple of prizes. He says the Madden launches have died down a bit for him with the game’s peak in Berkeley being around Madden NFL 05 and Madden NFL 06.

“It goes with the mood people have about Madden,” he said.

If you want go, you can check out the Madden NFL 09 launch at 2200 Shattuck Ave in Berkeley.

But if you’re in the East Bay and if you’re a Raider fan, there’s only one place to go and that’s the GameStop off of Hegenberger Road. Fugate said that hundreds of people lineup to this GameStop next to a Wal-Mart. But it isn’t the deals that draw them. A couple of doors down from this store is a Raider Image and the two work in conjunction trying to put on a show for fans. During different years, there are Raiderette signings and even some playes drop by, according to Fugate.

With that said, expect a few hundred people. The store’s address is 8460 Edgewater Dr # B, Oakland, CA.

OK, Brett Favre just got traded to the Jets. Apparently, no one has time to photo old No. 4 in a Jets jersey. Unable to get someone to work on photoshop, the resourceful folks at ESPN did the next best thing. They fired up a copy of Madden NFL and traded Favre to the Jets. Eh, he looks all right in a different sort of green.

Does this mean, they’ll have to change the cover?

Aaron Rodgers fans rejoice! The former Cal quarterback is going to be the starting signal caller for the Green Bay Packers. Well, he is going to be a starter in Madden that is.

One of the things that the whole Brett Favre fiasco is doing is messing with Madden NFL 09 rosters.

Remember the Pasta Padre leak of the Madden NFL 09 player ratings? Well, on the Packers side, it was assumed that Favre was retired so this is how it looked like.

Well now that Old No. 4 is back on the roster, that may shake up things up a bit. According to EA’s Tyrone Miller, Brett Favre will be on the roster update when the game is released Aug. 12. When folks play the game, he’ll be listed as the back-up QB, and depending on what happens in camp, he may be listed as the starter when EA Tiburon does its next update before the season.

If players just want to simulate the inevitable. They can just move Favre to the starting lineup themselves or maybe he’ll get traded … . I, for one, blame the Madden curse for this whole problem circus. It is all-powerful. I’m sure this is the first and only time Madden has had a back-up quarterback on its cover.

This is it. Last and most certainly least, we’ve come to team defense.

Defense wins championships in real football but not in fantasy. If your league runs team defense your best bet is to just pick up the available D with the weakest matchup every week. Seriously, “Whoever’s playing the Dolphins.” is way better than even the most solid drafted defense. Try it this year. If the Dolphins’ opponents are taken pick whoever’s up against the Falcons and so on.

But I promised you rankings and rankings you shall get. If you insist on sticking with one unit this is probably, more or less, your best bet.

Onward ho, to the grand fantasy football finale.

Kickers get no respect. For instance, there has yet to be a Madden 09 screenshot released of a kicker. The closest I could get is what you see above, Devin Hester fielding a short field goal after the kicker blew it.

This is also true in fantasy, but there’s a good reason behind it: There’s no such thing as a bad fantasy kicker. A kicker on a good team will get you decent point totals off extra points. A kicker on a bad team will get you decent point totals off field goals when the offense stalls in the end zone. The difference between the #1 kicker and the #10 kicker in my rankings is 4.05. It’s hard to go wrong.

So why bother with kicker rankings at all? Because that 4.05 difference could mean the difference between the playoffs and an early end to the season if you’re on the bubble. Every point counts.

So make with the mostly unnecessary list.

I’ll come right out and say it. My tight end algorithm doesn’t put Antonio Gates at #1. It puts Tony Gonzales at #8. Alge Crumpler is #20.

Don’t run away yet!

Tight end is a volatile position. It’s hard to rank not only because of all the duties the TE has to perform, but because it’s better for a tight end if the quarterback is worse, but not if the QB is so bad he can’t find him to get him the ball. TE scouting is an attempt to find a balance; a good offense but not too good, a solid but not spectacular QB, a good enough line that they don’t need a sixth blocker but not so good the QB can skip the short pass for a deep shot.

And after all that it’s often the lowest-scoring required position.

That’s why this list is as good as any.

Onward, to the math and the list.