PETA Protests The Michael Vick Madden Cover That Doesn't Exist Yet

When ESPN and EA Sports announced that they would team up to let fans select the Madden 2012 cover boy, we predicted that the angry loud people would quickly sound off about the selections. The pool is now down to 16 selections, and the shit-stirring has begun: in a totally unoriginal outcome, the loud angry people are PETA and the selection under fire is Philadelphia's Michael Vick.

Peter Moore, President of EA Sports, says that PETA and independent animal-rights activists have written letters to the company urging them to remove Vick from the bracket. Moore has responded with a fairly emphatic no: "We believe that Michael Vick, as the runner-up in MVP for the league and the comeback player of the year, deserved his slot," he told CNBC at the World Congress of Sports on Wednesday. "I personally believe, and this is personal commentary right now, that Michael served his time. He's had a tremendous season."

Vick is currently paired against Andre Johnson in the round of 16, and despite PETA's efforts, he has a good chance at winning it all and earning his second cover for the most important football game of all time. ProFootballTalk has already suggested that PETA's efforts would be better spent voting for Johnson than writing letters to a massive corporation; we encourage you to offset that back-up plan by voting for Vick for a video game that doesn't exist yet based on a sport that might not be played next year. It will be time well spent.