The NFL and EA sure know how to throw a party! And they sure know whom to invite!

In celebration of the upcoming August 10, 2010 launch of EA’s Madden NFL 11, the NFL and EA teamed up last week for their annual Pigskin Pro-Am Event in Malibu, CA which consisted of a flag football game played by favorite past and present NFL players along with an interesting mix of Hollywood celebs.

They invited: Joe Montana, Jerry Rice (pictured left), Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin, Rod Woodson, Craig Robinson, Elizabeth Shannon, Marcus Allen, Stacy Keibler, Kurt Warner, Shannon Sharpe, Maria Menounos, Jesse Plemons, James Van Der Beek, Kristin Cavallari, Quinton Aaron, Terrell Owens (coach) and Tony Gonzalez (coach).

I went mainly to see my favorite player Tony Romo who was slated to coach the “Famers/Blue” team (Irvin, Warner, Woodson, Sharpe, etc.) but unfortunately for me, Romo was a no show (I am sure there is a good reason). Even worse for me, Romo was replaced by Terrell Owens who had recently won my first and only Celeb Repellent Awardfor totally snubbing me the last time I met him.

But–regardless of my disappointment of not meeting Tony Romo, I could not have asked for a better day filled with football, food, great weather and celebrities.

When you get so many amazing Hall of Fame football players together in one place, you better believe you will not have an ordinary flag football game on your hands.

From the beginning coin toss consisting of a foot race between The Blind Side‘s Quinton Aaron (pictured on right) and The Office‘s Craig Robinson  (Robinson won) to the last minute interception thrown by Joe Montana to Rod Woodson which put his team behind for the first time all game to the last second winning TD also thrown by Joe Montana to Marcus Allen, this game had every bit of excitement, thrills, nail-biting finish and sportsmanship that we’d only hope to get from any real NFL Playoff game.

The “Gamers/Red” team (Montana, Rice, Sanders, Allen, etc.) ended up winning but each team provided many amazing moments other than the Montana-Allen last-second game winning TD. My favorite moments included:

Watching one of my all-time faves, Michael Irvin, smiling and spritzing on the field (until he got hurt early on); seeing Marcus Allen looking to be in as good a shape as he was in when he won Super Bowl MVP in 1984; and witnessing a TD from Joe Montana to Jerry Rice (see video below) as if time had stood still because neither looked any worse for the years of wear in between their multi-Super Bowl years and now. Man, Montana is just as sharp as ever and Rice is just as fast as ever.

Rice may have been the early target for Montana, but as the game wore on, an unlikely person became more and more Montana’s favorite go-to-guy. Or I should say, go-to-girl.

It seemed as if every pass or TD thrown by Montana in the third and fourth quarters was thrown to and caught by Maria Menounos who eventually was named the MVP of the game and is shown here to the right showing off her MVP Award.

In accepting her MVP Award, Menounos said, “This is a dream come true. I tell people I am a dude, and this just reinforces it. I wanna dedicate this award to all the girls who are told they ain’t got skills and don’t ever get passed to.” Thank you Maria on behalf of one of those girls.

The NFL and EA also invited 1600 football and videogame fans to watch the celebrity-filled football game and 800 of those fans walked away with an advanced copy of Madden NFL11 as a gift: 400 fans received a copy because they didn’t have a seat during the flag football game and EA wanted to especially thank them and another 400 fans also got a copy because they had correctly predicted the winning Gamers/Red team–that would be the team lead by QB Montana. So you can only imagine the energy and tension that the fans felt, especially during the last-minute game lead changes, when so much was riding on the game for them!

Thank you NFL and EA!

And for a parting shot, here is Rod Woodson who provided one of the game’s exciting moments by intercepting Joe Montana’s pass with one minute left in the game.

Finally, I found this video capturing great moments of the event on YouTube: It shows highlights of the flag football game and Madden NFL 11 game. It is directed by Steve Prudholme. Enjoy!