Electronic Arts’s bracket, designed to select a cover athlete for the next Madden game, has finally reached its championship round. Browns running back Peyton Hillis and Eagles quarterback Michael Vick are the last two standing. As Ufford so eloquently pointed out, “The blackest player in the whitest position versus the whitest player in the blackest position. That’s marvelous.” Indeed.

The intrigue picks up here as Vick is only one vote away from making his second Madden cover, an unprecedented feat. Is Hillis, a lesser-known running back from a smaller market who probably likes dogs but not in that way, a formidable challenge in the polls? Peyton faced little adversity in the first two rounds before bettering Aaron Rodgers in semifinal voting, 61 percent to A-Rodg’s 39 percent.

Vick, conversely, seems to have completely rehabilitated his public image since returning to the NFL in 2009. The Eagles slapped the franchise tag on Vick, and he’ll play in what’s essentially a second straight walk year, provided that any football is played in 2011. I’m predicting that Vick will make the cover of “Madden NFL 12,” and cap off an amazing public comeback. And then he’ll probably get a sandwich or something, because achievement makes everyone hungry.