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Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis didn’t just win the Madden NFL 12 Cover Vote, he demolished his competition, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. The Madden NFL 2004 coverboy only managed to capture 34% of the vote to Hillis’ 66%. Hillis had an impressive 2010-2011 season, but this vote was clearly a huge upset.

All told, more than 12,000,000 votes were cast throughout the entire tournament and Hillis steamrolled some pretty hefty competition (including head-to-head victories over Ray Rice, Matt Ryan, Jamaal Charles and Aaron Rodgers).

Madden NFL 12 (with Peyton Hillis on the cover) will be released for the PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 on August 30.

And then there were two.

The voting for the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete is down to the end and only Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick and Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis remain.

Hillis defeated the heavily favored Aaron Rodgers to reach the finals while Vick ended the cinderella dreams of Adrian Peterson. A Vick victory would give the formerly incarcerated quarterback his second Madden cover appearance while Hillis has run over some of the biggest names in pro football to reach the finals. I think it’s safe to say that few people picked either of these guys to make it this far.

Final round voting will continue from now until Monday, April 25. The winner will be announced on April 27th during ESPN 2’s “SportsNation.”

Rob Semsey, the Director of Public Relations at EA Sports, has tweeted that Madden NFL 12 will be released on August 30. Normally, the Madden series rushes stores during the middle of the month, but with this year’s labor problems between the NFL and the players union, perhaps the publisher wanted to give the development team at EA Tiburon a little more time before the season starts.

Semsey said the later release date was picked “to align closer to the start of the NFL regular season.”

Whatever the reason, the currently cover athelete-less Madden NFL 12 will be released for the PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 whether the lockout is resolved or not.

The third round of the Madden NFL 12 Cover Vote has come to a close and now only four names remain.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers emerged victorious over New England’s Danny Woodhead. He’ll face Peyton Hillis of the Cleveland Browns in the semifinals, who continued his cinderella run with a win over Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles.

The other half of the bracket includes Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick on top, Vick beat the 49ers’ Patrick Willis in round three. He’ll be challenged by Vikings wide receiver Adrian Peterson, who stomped Drew Brees with 62% of the vote.

Semifinal voting begins today and runs through April 17.

The second round of voting for the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete is complete and a ton of top seeds have been knocked out.

Jacksonville’s Maurice Jones-Drew (#3), Atlanta’s Matt Ryan (#2), Pittsburgh’s Hines Ward (#2) and San Diego’s Phillip Rivers (#1) have all escaped the Madden cover curse been voted out by the fans. The survivors of the second round include several Cinderella stories, though Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers is still alive as well in round three:

Aaron Rodgers (#1) vs Danny Woodhead (#4)
Jamaal Charles (#6) vs Peyton Hillis (#10)

Adrian Peterson (#9) vs Drew Brees (#4)
Michael Vick (#3) vs Patrick Willis (#10)

Voting for the third round begins today and runs through April 11th at ESPN.com/maddenvote.

The first round of the Madden NFL 12 Cover Vote has ended with few surprises. The higher ranked seed won in every matchup except for #7 Ray Rice (who lost to #10 Peyton Hillis) and #8 Julius Peppers (who lost to #9 Adrian Peterson).

Voting for the second round has begun today at ESPN.com/maddenvote and with it comes a few very interesting matchups:

Aaron Rodgers (#1) vs Sam Bradford (#8)
Danny Woodhead (#4) vs Hakeem Nicks (#5)
Maurice Jones-Drew (#3) vs Jamaal Charles (#6)
Matt Ryan (#2) vs Peyton Hillis (#10)

Phillip Rivers (#1) vs Adrian Peterson (#9)
Drew Brees (#4) vs Mark Sanchez (#5)
Michael Vick (#3) vs Andre Johnson (#6)
Hines Ward (#2) vs Patrick Willis (#10)

Voting for round two continues through April 3rd.