Last night, several football greats descended on Times Square for the launch of Madden NFL 08. As you can see from John's rundown below, there were several events planned for fans of the franchise.

The evening started off with me wandering around taking photos of all the advertising as you can from the photos posted yesterday. It was crazy to see as Times Square really was transformed into Madden Island. Jumbotrons flashed commercials and barricades were covered with banners. It was a marketer's dream. I also watched them setting up the stage above the Hard Rock Café entrance for the performance that would come later that night.

Next, I headed over to the ESPN Zone where the best of the best were competing with each other on several flat screens in the private VIP area. Warren Moon and Eric Dickerson dropped by to try their hands at the game while fans looked on and cheered.



I then met up with Matt (MASTAglach820) and we checked out the Hard Rock Café, the ESPN Zone and Military Island. We grabbed a spot right under the stage so I could grab some stills. Ozzy rocked the house with three songs. Of course one of them was Crazy Train. The drummer's little girls were standing near us going nuts. It was very cute.



After the performance, Jamal Anderson and Eric Dickerson got on the mini stage on Military Island and played Madden on the jumbotron. Who would have thought? They were then joined by Marshall Faulk and Tiki Barber. NOOOOOO, I'm not a huge football fan but I did know Tiki, OK?! heh Fans gathered on the other side of the street to cheer them on. Security guards often had to "remind" them to not stand in the street since, you know, cars were flying down. Matt was also lucky enough to get a shot at playing on the big screen.
(interesting tidbit - They stopped traffic in Times Square so I could take that shot of Jamal, Marshall, Warren and Tiki. I think that was the highlight of my life! HAH!)



When this was over, Matt and I wandered over to Toys R Us to watch the first fan in line get his copy of the game signed by Tiki. He was absolutely stoked. He jumped up on the counter for some photos and his eyes were lit up like a little kid. It was really cool to see and Tiki was a great sport.



This was followed by a party at the ESPN Zone for those who had waited long hours to buy the game first. Eric Dickerson, Jamal Anderson, Marshall Faulk, Warren Moon, Tiki Barber, Lil Jon and others stopped to sign autographs and mingle with the fans.

After it was all over, Freaktrain helped me drag my limp body back to the hotel and I uploaded a bunch of photos for your viewing pleasure. Check out all the pics on the flickr page!