Rob Knop's Blog -- ramblings and rants about astronomy, cosmology, science education, general nerdism, and anything else.
Rob Knop earned a PhD in Physics from Caltech in 1997, and did a 5-year post-doc with the Supernova Cosmology Project, and contributed to the discovery of the accelerating Universe. He was an assistant professor of Physics & Astronomy at Vanderbilt for 6 years before scattering out of academia. He now works for Linden Lab, the producers of Second LIfe. (Note: this is not an official site of Linden Lab! Although I work for Linden Lab, all content in this blog is posted without the review or approval of Linden Lab. All statements and opinions expressed here are my own.)
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Category: Video Games
Posted on: April 18, 2007 12:26 AM, by Rob Knop
As a Nashville resident, and somebody who's really a 49ers fan but one who is developing some hometown interest in the Tennessee Titans, I was happy to see that last year's rookie quarterback Vince Young has been selected to be on the cover of the video game Madden '08.
So the only question that remains is: will cornerback Pacman Jones make it on the cover of "Grand Theft Auto IV"?
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
Comments
Rob, I gotta give it up to you, that's the funniest thing I've read on ScienceBlogs in a long time!
Posted by: Jeff Hebert | April 18, 2007 8:02 AM
Well if you are gaining interest in the Titans i would suggest this is a bad thing. Don't you know about the curse?
Posted by: monson | April 18, 2007 8:31 AM
Yeah, I know about the curse, but I also think it's a load of hooey :)
Here's my hypothesis for the origin of the curse: the effects of the curse and the selection for being on the cover of Madden have a common cause. That is, extremely high expectations.
Vince Young started the year last year amid huge skepticism. The Titans had been struggling. Here was a hot young quarterback... but a quarterback who thrived by being able to run against college defenses, and it wasn't clear that it was going to work against pro defenses. And, indeed, in early games during the year (when he wasn't the starter, but was put in later in the game), he looked very shaky. He looked impressive when he was passing... to his own team. But when he started to scramble, too often he ended up getting caught way behind the line.
The second half of the year-- he was on fire. His enthusiasm and attitude was an inspiration for the team, a marked contrast to the horrors that Pacman brings. His athleticism served him well. He became our Great Hope.
So... no matter what, Vince Young is under the spotlight next year. The fact that he became the Great Hope is what will make him have a stressful year next year where any sort of underperformance we highly overanalized. He will be under the microscope, and that kind of attention may prove to make things difficult for him.
The fact that he became the Great Hope is also why he was selected for the cover of Madden....
-Rob
Posted by: Rob Knop | April 18, 2007 3:31 PM
While we're on the topic of Nashville sports - I would say I'm sorry to see the Nashville Predators eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, but I'm a Sharks fan, so I'm not. :)
Posted by: David Williamson | April 21, 2007 1:43 AM