What happens when you take five giants of the NFL, put them on the stage at a hot New York City nightclub, pepper them with questions about their Madden cover-star status and playing the game? A whole lot of dissing, bragging and locker room banter.

In celebration of 20 years of the Madden NFL football game series, EA Sports invited former cover athletes Vince Young, Shaun Alexander, Ray Lewis, Marshall Faulk and Daunte Culpepper -- along with a gaggle of sports and gaming media -- to the Touch nightclub near Times Square. It was the perfect setting for these pro football stars and Madden-gaming nuts to raise the roof, while sneaking a peek at Madden NFL 09, set for an August release.

"I am one of those guys that does believe that defense wins championships, and Madden is such offensive game, you know," says a jovial Lewis, after reminding everyone that he's the only defensive player to grace a Madden cover. "Remember, the year I was on the cover they added the hit stick... [laughs]."

Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young, aka "Rook," the youngest member of the cover boy club, said that the effect of being on the cover has "been huge... given me lot of notoriety, not just here, but overseas and worldwide. It puts you on a different pedestal."

Retired St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk says he remembers playing Madden on the Sega console, and says that being on the cover meant his kids and younger family members would try doubly hard to beat him. Occasionally, they did. Similarly, quarterback Daunte Culpepper (currently a free agent) says when it was his year on the cover all his friends and teammates wanted to beat the cover guy, but that he was ahem very good at Madden NFL 2005. [Young jumps in to remind Culpepper that he beat him in the game a few years ago, asking an EA rep if they had it on tape. They do.]

Then the questions begin:

Does Madden accurately rate NFL players?

"I was always questioning my stats and ratings in the game. I was like 'My durability is that low? My speed is what?' How'd they come up with that?" says a mock perplexed Faulk.

"Yeh, same thing for me, man. What did they rate me off of? Huh? I ain't never lost to that guy!" Lewis says.

Is being on the Madden cover a curse?

"I never believed in it," says Culpepper, "It's just coincidence."

Faulk says it was definitely a coincidence: "If you were on the cover, it meant that the year before you did something special... Always something. You get a high-ankle sprain and people blow it up."

Former Seattle Seahawks running back and free agent Shaun Alexander breaks down the curse: "Look, there's only 29, 30 running backs in the league. How may get hurt in a year? A lot. It's a physical sport, a sport we love, then you run in to knuckleheads like Ray Ray over here."

So, how much does Madden come into play when you're on the field?

"Madden's got nothing to do with what's going on, on Sunday," Young says, as everyone else on the panel nods their heads in agreement.

The players say they usually play Madden more in the off-season, but that during the season they spend a lot more time watching tapes of actual games.

Ray Lewis, who Faulk says was always trash-talking on the field no matter the score or situation, ends the session by pointing out that his team, the Ravens and Young's Titans, are scheduled to play each other this year.

Look out, Vince. Ray Ray is gunning for those Young legs with a live-action version of the hit stick that has the potential to hurt a whole lot more.