Throughout the first day of the NFL Draft, we've been talking to fans on Twitter as they followed the Madden NFL 10 Draft Experience.  See what fans had to say about all of the coverage, how players are rated in Madden NFL 10, and which rookies they are most looking forward to playing with when Madden is in stores August 14th.

Have you ever wanted to talk to your favorite EA SPORTS athletes? Now is your chance.

From Sunday through next week some of the best sports athletes on the planet will be filming an EA SPORTS commercial in locations around the US. Throughout the shoot, these athletes will be jumping out of their comfort zones on the field and getting in front of a camera to chat live with you on the web!  Ask them about the shoot, what it’s like to be in an EA Sports game, or whatever other questions you’ve been dying to drop.

Send any questions you have in advance to @EASPORTS or ask the athletes live in a live window that we will tweet out.  For any questions on Twitter, please leave the hashtag #easportslive

Follow @EASPORTS, and the EA SPORTS Twitter community managers @ea @sk88z, @dewiel, and @raczilla for all the latest info and real time updates on the schedules which are subject to change from the times listed below. 

Sunday(04/26)    —  Serena and Venus Williams - Check out a replay of the chat here - Serena and Venus Williams

Monday(04/27)   —  Madden 10 cover athletes Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu - Check out the replay of the chat here - Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald

Tuesday(04/28)   —  Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Willie Parker, and LaMarr Woodley

Thursday(04/30) —  Kentucky Coach John Calipari

Next Monday(05/04)    — To be announced Tuesday via @EASPORTS

Next Tuesday(05/05)   — To be announced Wednesday via @EASPORTS

We're just a few hours away from the start of the Madden NFL 10 Draft Experience.  Starting at 3:30 p.m. eastern, you'll be able to watch our live broadcast from the EA SPORTS Tiburon studio and see the rookies ratings and screens as they are picked.

Right now we're in the studio getting everything set up.  Even though the broadcast hasn't started, you can see the behind the scenes video feed by going to the Madden NFL 10 Draft Experience site.   We're also posting live updates throughout the day here on the blog and via Twitter, so be sure to follow us there.

We're now less than a week away from the Madden NFL 10 Draft Experience on the official Madden NFL 10 product website.  During the NFL Draft on Saturday April 25th, the website will feature a live, streaming draft analysis show produced right from Madden headquarters in Orlando, Florida.   As players are selected, their official Madden NFL 10 ratings will be released and discussed live.  The website will also feature dynamic polls, social networking feeds, photos from the NFL Draft, and live blogs from the Madden NFL 10 player ratings team.

To make sure you are as informed as possible about everything happening during the Madden NFL 10 Draft Experience, here are five things you should know going into the Draft on Saturday.    

#5 Madden NFL Draft Experience Talk on Twitter.  We're already talking about the Madden NFL Draft Experience on Twitter, a popular micro-blogging/social network site.  You can follow me on twitter here,  I'll be posting updates live from the Tiburon studio during the Draft and am already taking part in some early Madden Draft discussion leading up to the day of the show.  Our Madden ratings guru Donny Moore is also on Twitter, so follow him and take part in some of his early Draft and ratings speculation.  We're using a special #maddendraft tag for all of our Twitter discussion, so please post #maddendraft in any of your Twitter posts talking about the Draft or Madden NFL 10 ratings.

#4 Check out the preview videos.  We've posted some great video content that will help give you an idea of what to expect to see during the Madden NFL Draft Experience.  Go here to see some of our War Room discussion over the last week and here to see a trailer video for the Draft Experience show. 

#3 Mock Drafts and Pre Draft Discussion all week on EA SPORTS Live.  Donny Moore has been visiting us all week on EA SPORTS Live to talk about the Draft.  Today he talked about some of the top quarterbacks in this year's Draft class.  You can listen to the rest of his segments each day this week on EA SPORTS Live.   Click here every weekday at 3:00 p.m. eastern to listen to EA SPORTS Live.  Donny has also posted mocks of both the first and second rounds of the Draft, so be sure to check those out as well.

#2 What about the screens and ratings?  For several years now we've posted screens of the first round of incoming rookies to the Madden NFL website.  Not only will we do that again, we'll also feature their ratings live during the Draft for the first time ever!  Screens will be posted for the first round players and ratings will be posted and discussed for both the first and second rounds.  You'll also have the chance to share your opinions about the ratings in the comments of some live blogs we'll post to the website.  Madden ratings guru Donny Moore will be reading and posting to the blogs throughout the day, so let him know what you think of how he's rated the players.  Since the ratings aren't 100% final, you might even be able to influence him if you make some good points in the comments.

#1 Who, when, and where?  You'll see the Thompson brothers and Donny Moore all day long on the show, but we've got some special guests in attendance as well.  Former All-Pro tight end and current NFL analyst Shannon Sharpe will be in the studio to share his thoughts on the Draft, and NFL stars Matt Ryan, DeSean Jackson, and Matt Forte will call in to the show to talk about their own Draft day experiences.  We'll have a few more NFL experts and gaming site media members call in during the day and some of the Madden NFL dev team will be watching the Draft from our EA SPORTS Draft Day War Room.

The most important thing to know of course is when and where to see everything.  The show begins at 3:30 p.m. eastern this coming Saturday the 25th on the Madden NFL 10 product site.  But even before that we'll have some Draft coverage from New York later this week right here on the Inside EA SPORTS Blog.  Stay tuned to both sites in the coming days to make sure you don't miss all of the great Madden NFL 10 Draft coverage.

if you have any questions about our plans for the Draft, feel free to post them in the comments and we'll do our best to answer them right away.  See you Saturday!

-raczilla

It's the early hours of Saturday morning and our community feedback event is still underway.  The Madden NFL 10 dev team has had some great interaction with our attendees, who are still playing the game and jotting down notes on areas they feel can be tuned prior to its release.

Thanks for following our coverage today on the Inside Blog and EA SPORTS Live.  Before we wrap up,  take a look at a video featuring thoughts from our event attendees and Madden NFL 10 lead designer Ian Cummings.