Yes, we know Madden's nothing new on phones, but we had to highlight Madden 2010 for iPhone -- which EA just confirmed today will be ready in time for the start of the NFL season -- because it looks really damn good. Console quality, even. That's great and all, but Madden's the kind of franchise that really needs quick reflexes and a whole lot of buttons positioned conveniently around the entirety of a console-ready controller to control with any precision, and buttons are something the iPhone distinctly lacks. So yes, we get it, the iPhone's capable of some stellar graphics -- but the real question is whether you'll be able to play through four quarters without punting it into the opposition's territory.

While waiting for a Caribbean cruise liner to set sail from the Port of Miami last November, a Chicago native with an AT&T wireless card and Slingbox decided to catch the Bears vs. Lions football game on his laptop. The end result? A $28,067.31 bill from for international data charges, despite the ship never leaving the harbor. Apparently the card was picking up a signal it shouldn't have, and while the bill was eventually dropped to $290.65 after a considerable number of calls to customer service, let that be a warning to mobile users traveling on the fringe of international roaming areas -- and in case you were wondering, the Bears ended up winning 27 to 23.

[Via The Register]

The National Football League and Sprint have been tied up in one form or fashion for years now, but the relationship is finally rounding third and heading for home. All mixed analogies aside, what we're saying is that the feature you've been clamoring for has finally arrived, and beginning tonight, select Sprint subscribers will be able to watch the entire Cleveland Browns vs. Denver Broncos tilt on their handset. Obviously, you'll need a Sprint TV-capable handset and an Everything Plan (or a $15 per month add-on) in order to tune in, but tonight's game -- which kicks off at 8:00PM ET on the NFL Network -- will be the first of eight games (televised solely on that network) to air via Sprint. Whether or not The Now Network can keep up with the action, however, remains to be seen.

Call us cynical, but we just can't see this one working out it. A team of researchers from Umeå University in Sweden are reportedly looking to sync up events on a soccer field to vibrations in a cellphone, essentially enabling you to keep track of the action without having to focus your eyes / ears on the handset. The proposed system could send vibrations to the phone that would act as a way of communicating possession, ball placement and (of course) gooooooooaaallllls, but obviously a few obstacles still stand in the way. For starters, buzzing your mobile through an entire tilt would do a number on the battery life, and even though you could "feel" the action, it would still require a great deal of attention. In all honesty, we'd say this whole system probably has more promise off the pitch than on, but then again, we call football soccer, so what do we know?

[Via UnwiredView]

Simmer down, NFL fans -- we're talking real football here, so we'd recommend hoping a flight to Europe if you're interested in taking advantage of this. Reportedly, Bluepod Media has inked exclusive BT marketing rights with a bevy of Premiership football clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City, West Ham, Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic (among others). The deal was worked out after successful trials at Portsmouth and Birmingham City, and going forward, Bluepod will be working with third-parties to "create and distribute branded content to football fans within all stadiums on match days." Best of all, said content will be offered up to attendees gratis, while brand owners will be shelling out cash on a per download basis. Don't worry, dear Americans, you can always order up a hot dog from the comfort of your Safeco Field seat with your DS -- how's that for a consolation prize?

[Via IntoMobile, image courtesy of Hobo Tread]

Are you ready for some football? How about full-length, live coverage of 24 NCAA bowl games. Sounds good, right? Just forget about big screen HDTV though, this is MediaFLO on your itty bitty cellphone display. Fanatics (in every sense of the word) will have access to games provided by ESPN Mobile TV, CBS Mobile and FOX Mobile through Verizon's V CAST Mobile TV. Unfortunately, none of the BCS Championship games will be available on the service. You will however have access to Roady's Humanitarian Bowl, Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, the Meinke Car Care Bowl, and Papa John's.com bowl to name just a few. "Must see" games Verizon -- really?

Those so desperate for football that they're watching preseason showdowns should certainly enjoy this one. Reportedly, subscribers to DirecTV's Sunday Ticket SuperFan package will be able to access NFL games on their mobile for the first time this season. Users who plunk down the necessary coinage will soon be able to view "the entire weekly lineup of live NFL Sunday Ticket games" via the internet, which can be accessed through a computer or one's handset. Additionally, customers can even look forward to in-progress highlights, scores, and clock updates, which means that you'll never miss a moment of pigskin action so long as you've got a signal on Sundays.

[Via MultiChannel]

Mobile ESPN might not have attracted quite the following they'd have hoped for so far, but that's certainly not to say they won't keep on keepin' on. In a deal with potentially broad-reaching implications for 3G data, MVNOs, and mobile entertainment in general, the sports-oriented carrier has announced plans to broadcast live college football games to their handsets, with as many as 25 planned for the 2006 season. Details are slim for the picking -- including the all-important question of pricing -- but if they can get this feature out the door for little or no additional cost on top of their basic service plans, we can definitely see this winning a few converts (not to mention flooding Sprint's EV-DO pipes in the process).

[Via Moco News]

Because missing even a second of this year's football draft could wreak havoc on your performance in the coming season's fantasy leagues, Sprint is thoughtfully broadcasting the "action" live to subscribers of their Sprint TV NFL Mobile package. While this news in and of itself is rather mundane (especially to us non-football fans), the fact that Sprint has exclusive wireless rights to the draft while Monday Night Football rights-holder ESPN is barred from streaming the broadcast to its Mobile ESPN subscribers is rather interesting, and could be indicative of future trends. Although the demand for mobile TV is still definitely up in the air, might there be a day when enough rabid football fans have 3G-enabled cellphones to make it profitable for wireless carriers to bid against traditional networks on the games themselves, and broadcast them exclusively to a mobile audience?

[Via Moco News]

This being a World Cup year, it's only fitting that some of the slickest ways to digest sports stats will be coming our way before the tournament hits in June. Along those lines, Yahoo! has partnered up Everypoint to develop Yahoo! Mobile Matchcast for Java enabled phones. The downloadable app "pushes" scores and stats to a user's handset, along with photos, previews, and tournament news. It all works in real time, and the content is displayed by Everypoint's vector display engine to keep things looking sharp. The app will be available for download at the official tournament site, we're not sure on the price.