Aerosmith frontman and American Idol judge Steven Tyler performed his version of the national anthem before Sunday’s AFC Championship between the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens, and most of Monday’s Internet has been about how terrible it was. The L.A. Times has a post up called Steven Tyler’s national anthem: Worst ever? [Poll], comparing it to similarly-awful versions by Roseanne Barr, Carl Lewis, Christina Aguilera and, worst of all, Scott Stapp. What could Tyler have possibly done in this lifetime to be compared to Scott Stapp? That’s like being told you’ve got 24 hours to live.

To recap, Steven Tyler:

1. is 63-years old.
2. is dressed like a lady hobo.
3. has more or less sung exactly the same song since he decided he wanted his voice to sound like a descending hawk circa 1975′s Toys In The Attic and has topped the popular music charts with at least 100 #1 singles in said voice since said album.

So, to reiterate … what exactly were you expecting from a Steven Tyler national anthem, America? He’s Steven Tyler. He sings like that. He is an old lady hobo. Did you expect him to bust out a Josh Groban-ass Ave Maria? I’m surprised we got through it without him going WHACK-ACK-OW, WHACK-ACK-ACK-ACK-OWWW and a pelvic mic stand thrust.

Video of the performance is below. Compare and contrast it to any Aerosmith video on YouTube, especially the ones with teenage Alicia Silverstone and/or Liv Tyler in leather pants.

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Instead of picking a cover athlete for their 24th edition of the Madden NFL video game series, the powers that be at Electronic Arts have passed the decision onto the fans, in the form of a 32-athlete bracket. One player from each NFL team was pitted in a vote-based elimination tournament, and the “winners” from second-round polling were announced today.

Michael Vick, who fronted the game’s 2004 edition, might be the favorite in this tournament, but oh look, there’s Danny Woodhead from the New England Patriots. One has to wonder if Woodhead, who had relatively easy matchups against Steve Johnson and Hakeem Nicks, has the scrappiness and deceptive speed required to blow past Aaron Rodgers. The winner would surely be favored against the Jamaal Charles/Peyton Hillis winner, and could conceivably face Vick, Drew Brees or Adrian Peterson for the right to appear on the cover of Madden NFL 12.

The full bracket is here. Enjoy it. It might be the last NFL competition we see for a while.