The Madden Curse
NFL players are chosen to be on the cover of Madden after exceptional performance years. Every players who has appeared on the cover in subsequent years has generally failed to reproduce their success of the previous years, for a variety of reasons.Here is a list of the players who have been Madden cover boys, all whom fell prey to the Madden Curse:
Garrison Hearst (1999) - He was the first player to be featured on the Madden cover. He was a running back for the 49ers who led his team to the playoffs. But on the first play of the divisional game, he suffered a bad ankle break and his team would go on to lose the game.
Dorsey Levens (2000) - After rushing for 1,034 yards in 1999 for the Green Bay Packers, he gained only 224 yards from scrimmage in 2000.
Eddie George (2001) - The former Titans running back, Eddie George's curse started in 2001 AFC Divisional Playoff game when he fumbled the ball and lost the game for Tennessee. He also fumbled a career high of 7 times during the regular season. In the 2001 season following his appearance on the cover, he averaged only 3 yards per carry and rushed for career lows of 939 yards and 5 touchdowns due to an irritating toe injury that plagued him the rest of the season. For the remainder of his career, he never averaged more than 3.4 yards per carry.
Daunte Culpepper (2002) - The former Vikings QB went from throwing almost 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns while rushing for 470 yards and 7 more scores in the 2000 season to struggling with turnovers. During his 2001 season, he threw 13 interceptions and only 14 touchdown passes before a back injury ended his season in the 11th game.
Marshall Faulk (2003) - The former running back of the St. Louis Rams, who was on the Madden NFL 2003 box, suffered an ankle injury, missing five games, which brought his rushing stats considerable down.
Michael Vick (2004) - Five days after Madden was released featuring Atlanta Falcons quarterback on the cover, Vick fractured his right fibula during a preseason game. Vick played in only the last 5 regular season games, accumulating only 585 yards passing and 4 touchdowns.
Ray Lewis (2005) - The Baltimore Raven linebacker was the first defensive player to be featured on the Madden cover, after which he broke his wrist, an injury that kept him out of the last game of the regular season. It was also Lewis's first season without a single interception, after posting a career-high 6 the previous year, and he had a career low of 77 tackles after two consecutive 200+ seasons.
Donovan McNabb (2006) - McNabb lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2004, but in 2005 the QB suffered a sports hernia in the first game of the season that nagged him all year. In the 10th game of the season, McNabb had a groin injury and also decided to have season-ending surgery for his sports hernia. In the 10th game of the following year, he suddenly tore his ACL and was out for the rest of that season too.
Shaun Alexander (2007) - The season before Shaun Alexander, the Seattle running back, was featured on Madden, he broke the rushing touchdown record with 28 TDs. The next year, Alexander broke his foot, missed 6 games, and failed to rush for 1000 yards for the first time since 2000.
Vince Young (2008) - The year before Vince Young was on the cover of madden, he was awarded with Rookie of the Year and became the first rookie quarterback to play in the probowl. The year he was the Madden cover boy he tore his right quad during the Titans 5th game and was unable to play against the Houston Texans the next week. Being from Houston, playing football in Texas his whole life, this was a big game for him to miss. Not playing in that game marked the first time in his career (including middle school, high school, college, and the NFL) that an injury kept him from playing. Poor Vince. He was bothered by that quad the whole season.
Next victim?? Brett Favre will be on this year’s Madden cover. I had thought this might mean the end of the Madden Curse since they picked a retired player. Now, I’m not so sure. Things aren’t going so well for Brett right now. If you’ve turned on your tv in the past month you’ve probably heard the Brett Favre saga. Brett decided to retire, and a big deal was made of one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL career coming to an end. Then Brett decided he wants to play. Well, the Green Bay Packers have said they have moved on and plan to give the young (and patient) Aaron Rodgers a chance at tossing the ball. So who knows what’s going to happen with ole Brett, but it’s not out of the question to say that he might already be feeling a little bit of the Curse.
posted by LadyD @ 1:03 PM
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