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To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Madden football franchise, EA asked fans to vote on who would make the cover of the latest game. Apparently, the fear of the Madden Curse was enough to prevent everyone from voting for a player who could end up on their fantasy team, making the choice clear -- Detroit Lions Hall of Famer Barry Sanders will grace the cover of Madden 25.

Adding robots to things is a pretty good way to get my attention. Although I usually don't have any interest in college football, this week a coach at the University of Tennessee wanted an overhead view of his team, so he rented a drone to get it done. It's difficult to tell from the Vine coach Butch Jones posted on Twitter, but I think we've seen this particular drone before.

We don't typically pay much attention to sports news here at Geekosystem. Our friends at SportsGrid do a great job of covering that stuff, but this is a prime example of worlds colliding. The Detroit Lions just signed YouTube sensation Havard "Kickalicious" Rugland as their new kicker. They'll really clean up this season if the NFL changes its rules to include casually kicking a football with the back of your foot into an open garbage can.

Hailing from Washington, I can happily confirm that yes, as you may have heard, it rains quite a bit there. Somehow, though, we mostly get by just fine. Now, a University of Washington meteorologist has run the numbers to find that our NFL team has not only found ways to live with the rainy, wet conditions that are par for the course in the Northwest -- they actually thrive in them. The playoff bound Seattle Seahawks are more likely to win home games in rain or snow, and not by just a little.

Soccer (or football, if you prefer) a global pastime. It only makes sense that, over time, different parts of the world come up with different variations on the game, whether in the form of a new set of rules or maybe -- why the hell are those kids kicking a flaming coconut?!

Stanford University resarchers may have stumbled on the next wave of performance enhancers for athletes -- a way to cool the core temperature of the whole body with a glove that pulls heat out through the hands. The glove, which has been in trials for years and is getting ready for a commercial debut, uses veins in the hand designed for heat transfer to rapidly cool athletes following workouts, decreasing the time they need to recover and allowing them to get the most our of every moment.

In case you weren't entirely caught up on Obscure Sports Quarterly, stone skimming is not a sport to be taken lightly. There's even been rules against using artificial stones in competitive arenas due to potentially skewing results. But that's all changed with the coming legality of artificial stones. I'm completely serious.

In case you're curious, this is what happens when professional paintball players get bored with shooting each other: They come up with a game where you shock the ever lovin' heck out of your opponents with stun guns. Invented by Leif Kellenberger, and apparently not an elaborate hoax, the "sport" uses a large, artificial turf field, a two-foot diameter ball, and seven teammates armed with stun guns. Hilarity ensues.

While we may have marveled at Extreme Ironing, this video of the Shin-Kicking World Championship at the Cotswold Olympick Games proves that unusual UK sports is nothing new. The games, as well as the shin-kicking competition, apparently date from around 1612. The rules of this 400-year old sport are pretty straightforward: Contests grip each other by the collar, and then attempt to knock their opponent over by kicking at his shins. The only protection these bold gladiators are allowed is straw stuffed down their pantlegs. Of course, today's version of shin kicking is a bit different from how it used to be. According to Wikipedia, contests used to wear steel-toed boots and attempted to build up a pain tolerance by striking their shins with hammers. Truly the sport of kings. (via Bits and Pieces)

These aren't your grandpa's trading cards -- you know, the ones that are actually historic and valuable -- the hip kids on the block are packing video clips onto their mint-condition rectangular beauties. At least, that's the plan from sport card manufacturer Panini America, which plans to offer the cards featuring NBA, NFL, and NHL players. Each card will still be made from the traditional cardboard with a small color LCD display, speakers, 2 GB of memory, and onboard battery power. The cards will come pre-loaded with 20 minutes of career highlights for a particular player, starting with NBA stars Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, and John Wall. Because of all the embedded electronics, the cards will be many times thicker than the average trading card. In what could be an interesting nod to the hacker community, each card has additional storage space for users and comes with rechargers. Packs are expected to retail in packs of five for $20. Though undeniably cool, I have a hard time shaking the awful memories of the 1990's "collectors market" when I look at these new cards. Those who lived through those dark times will remember the Beanie Babies preserved in plastic boxes, the gold-embossed hollow-foil cards, and the "limited edition" comics; all promising to be a valuable investment in the future. Indeed, the collector community can look forward to special autographed video cards. In the new world of YouTube, these new cards will face stiff competition, but even if the cards fail to find an audience, the DIY types might have a hard time passing up cheap, tiny electronics. (LA Times via Slash Gear, image via LA Times)

In a world already overcrowded with "extreme" sports, a newcomer promises action and adventure and, "the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt." Extreme Ironing (note: when said, please mentally ad an amazing guitar riff) has already established itself  in the extreme sport community with events atop mountains, during sky dives, and even underwater. Though some would dismiss it as a joke, the social implications of the sport on a stereotypically lazy modern culture are impossible to ignore: people spending more time outside engaged in vigorous exercise while completing mundane chores. Truly, this bodes well for humanity. (via Bits & Pieces)

Every once in a while, you'll run into a geek and have a spirited conversation about video games, Battlestar Galactica, your man crush on Nathan Fillion ... and then suddenly your conversation will turn to sports. You think the moment has ended and you'll spend your next few minutes trying to find someone in the room weirder looking than both of you to mock. Until that nerd says, "As long as [fill in the blank football team] wins this weekend, it'll be a good one." And then the bonding begins. Finding out that the sports writers at the New York Post are really Star Wars geeks at heart? That's pretty sweet. And now, they've given us an epic pull-out cover featuring the ultimate rivalry between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots ahead of their equally epic playoff bout this weekend. Obviously, the Patriots are the EVIL SITH (as a NY Giants fan myself, I still revel in the Giants ruining their perfect season at the Super Bowl three years ago rather than think about the latter part of the current season -- because I can) and the Jets are the JEDI HEROES. Kinda odd to see Bill Belichik as Mark Sanchez's father (since the former is the head coach of the latter's ultimate rival ... still works for me ...), and Joe Namath as Yoda? There is all kinds of "right" with this, but for further commentary, I'll defer to our brother site, Sportsgrid. (Sportsgrid)

Accidentally developed when two University of Oslo physicists were working on sonar technology, the AudioScope microphone is a combination of 300 microphones and wide angle camera that can single out and isolate any singular conversation in a sports venue.

French rugby club Stade Francais is probably better known for its racy Dieux du Stade calendars than anything it actually does on the pitch, but Max Guazzini, the club’s owner, might just change that with his design for a new team uniform.

Called “The Crowd,” the jersey features caricatures of fans, and one of Guazzini himself. It looks like a really bad present-day version of Mexican Revolutionary War-era murals. Many of the characters are wearing pink, which Guazzini made an official team color to make the club look more gay friendly (because apparently a calendar featuring photos of naked, muscly rugby players wasn’t already sending that message).

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