The Madden Curse

Madden is one of the most look-forward-to releases on xbox and PS3 every year, and this year is no exception. This renowned franchise has been a phenomenon for the past 21 years. The team behind Madden even attends the NFL Draft every year in order to get headshots of rookies in their NFL uniforms as early as humanly possible. The competetive side of the phenomenon has grown too, and now hundreds of pro Madden players make tons of money playing in tournaments. You may have also heard the term "Madden Holiday"...and it just goes to show how incredibly popular it has become.

 

For all the good that comes with the hype and hysteria of Madden NFL, there is a downfall to the game's yearly release. In 1999, John Madden relinquished the cover of each game to a player...and since then, those players have ahd notortiously rough years.

 

In the first week of the 2009 season, the Madden curse had already reared it's ugly head. In 2009, there were two players on the cover for the first time in the franchise's history. Troy Polomalu was shown head-to-head with a man he covered in Super Bowl XLIII; Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals. Troy Polomalu was injured in the Steelers' very first regular season game against the Titans. The Steelers had to play the rest of the season without their star defensive player.

 

One would think that everyone in the league would have learned to avoid Madden by now. Athletes are notoriously superstitious, and next time Madden comes a callin', most would be better off to just decline. As history has shown, going on the Madden NFL cover is almost guaranteed to affect a player, and probably his team, negatively.

 

Historical examples of the Madden Curse:

 

2002: QB Daunte Culpepper was honored with a Madden 02 cover appearance folliowing his team's final four appearance in 2000. He followed this up by missing the last five games of the 2001 season with a hurt knee, and his team missed the playoffs.

 

2003: As the 2003 cover athlete, St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk had an ankle injury all season and failed to reach 1,000 rushing yards for the first time since 1996, while the Rams team went 7-9 and missed the playoffs.

 

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: After taking a break in 2004, the curse was back at it for the 2005 season. Donovan Mcnabb was the cover athlete of Madden 06 and wouldn't you know, he suffered a sports hernai in week one, causing him to eventually get sidelined for the second half of the year.

 

That evidence is hard to refute. So, how will Drew Brees fare against the msyterious and enignmatic "Madden Curse?"