The release of Madden 11 will be one of the most hyped and anticipated events in 2010. Madden has been on the scene for 21 years, and pretty much everyone who is a fan of football or video games has picked it up and played. Every year, the EA Sports team visits the NFL draft in order to get head-shots of the new players in their new uniforms as soon as possible. Television programs pitting some of the most talented Madden NFL players in tournaments are shown around the world. You may have also heard the term "Madden Holiday"...and it just goes to show how incredibly popular it has become.
You might also think that players are honored and delighted to be featured on the game's cover. Ever since 1999 when John Madden started putting players on the cover instead of himself, those players seem to either perform badly or suffer serious injury.
Last year was no exception to the Madden curse, and it made it's mark in the very first week of the regular season. Madden 10 was the first one to feature two cove athletes instead of just one. Both teams from SB 43 are acknowledged, with Troy Polomalu of the Steelers and Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals. Well, Polomalu got hurt in the very first game he played after being put on the cover of Madden, a medial collateral ligament sprain. He didn't return.
You'd think that the NFL would have leraned it's leason by now. Athletes are notoriously superstitious, and next time Madden comes a callin', most would be better off to just decline. Histroy has taught us that the negative effect of being on the Madden cover, for whatever scientific or non-scientific reason, is a real thing.
Historical examples of the Madden Curse:
2002: Daunte Culpepper, QB, followed up his 2000 NFC championship appearance by leading his team to a 5-11 season, and missed the final 5 games of the season with an injured knee following his fateful appearance on the cover of Madden 2002: he hsan't recovered yet.
2003: After gracing the cover of Madden 03, RB Marshall Faulk played the whole 2002 season with a hurt ankle and missed the 1,000 rushing yard mark for the first time in 6 years while his team rounded out the season with a 7-9 record, which wasn;t good enough for a playoff appearance.
2004: The Madden Curse struck for the third year in a row in 2003, when star QB Michael Vick missed the entire season due to a fractured fibula he got in a preseason game.
2006: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was coming off a Super Bowl appearance, in which his team lost to the New England Patriots. But as the Madden NFL 06 cover athlete, his 2005 was destined for disaster and he suffered a sports hernia in the first game and ended up shutting down for the last seven games of the season.
You might not be superstitious, but it's hard to deny the evidence.
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