Sandusky native Brian Delph could score big this week when he competes against some of the nation s top video game players on the third season of ESPN s Madden Nation.

Delph, 24, is one of eight contestants on the show, which debuts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN2 and pits players head-to-head on the wildly popular Madden NFL 08 game for Xbox 360. The gamers go on a nine-city bus tour and compete for $100,000 on the program, which already has finished taping.

The local man, who interned for the NFL s Atlanta Falcons and is a graduate of Bowling Green State University, has had plenty of experience with the game. Sometimes I play it two hours a day, he said. Sometimes I ll play it 18

hours straight.

Delph was chosen for the show because he was one of the top Madden players in the world, according to Anne Powell, a senior producer at ESPN. He won the Tampa Madden Challenge last year to become one of 26 finalists who played for $100,000 in Hawaii.

The show also will air at 11 p.m. Tuesday and will be followed by another episode.

First Published October 6, 2007, 10:16 a.m.