To all the uninformed out there, the football season has a curse lurking over its shoulder. A lot of athletes refuse to acknowledge it, but it does exist. The evidence is too overwhelming. Of course we are talking about the Madden Curse.
What is the so-called "Madden Curse" you might ask? Well the madden curse is what happens to whatever athlete is displayed on the cover of the newest edition of the hugely popular John Madden football video game series. What happens? Quite simply, they get injured! They might get injured for 1 game, or in the example of the Atlanta Falcons ex-quarterback Michael Vick, they lose their athletes for damn near the whole year! Michael Vick was the featured athlete on Madden '04 and was lost to the Atlanta falcons on a knee injury during their 04-05 season! It doesn't matter the severity of the injury or the length of the injury, it seems that as long as the athlete is injured, the Madden Curse is satisfied! A little known fact is that not only does the Madden Curse affect the featured athlete on the cover, it also affects the team that the athlete is on!
Case in point, the 2006 cover of Madden featured quarterback Donovan Mcnabb of the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles were fresh from their Super Bowl run the year before against the New England Patriots, (we'll get into that later) and expectations were high among Eagle fans (myself included), for the team to return to the Super Bowl, and this time to win! Unfortunately, it was not to be. I knew that this was going to be a bad year because of the Madden Curse. And when I mentioned this to those less informed I was told, "You're crazy! We're going all the way to the Super Bowl!". That years' Eagle team barely made the playoffs and we lost Donovan Mcnabb for a good part of the season to various injuries. Now the New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was susposed to be on the cover of that years Madden also. And at the last minute, for whatever reason, respectfully declined. Think about it. The New England Patriots had the monicker of "Dynasty" put on them after their win against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl because this was their third Super Bowl win in four seasons. So "Dynasty" was an accurate title for the team. But during that whole "Dynasty" run, not ONE member of the Super Bowl winning Patriots was on the cover of any Madden from '02 to '06. Isn't that odd to you? That a Super Bowl quarterback wouldn't want to be featured on the cover of Madden! According to quite a few of NFL athletes, being featured on the cover of Madden is one of the highest honors that can happen to you as an NFL player! Why wouldn't a Super Bowl winning quarterback be featured on the cover of the most popular football video game in the world? Hmmmmm......
It was also rumored that in the same year, MVP of the 2006 NFL season, running back Ladanian Thomas' entire fan base in San Diego signed a petition against him being on the cover of Madden because they didn't want him to get hurt. Coincidence? I think not! If you were to go and investigate from the year that NFL athletes were first put on the cover of Madden, you will find that everyone of the featured athletes were injured in that particular year. There are entirely to many examples to reference to give proof to the Madden Curse and we could go on and on but instead I will give you a reason why Brett Favre may be the first to break it!
Brett Favre's off season activities were the result of a man that had not searched himself before retiring. His retirement in my opinion, was a emotional decision instead of a physical one. Because of this, Brett Favre retired too early, and upon realizing that he had made a mistake, decided that he wanted to come back! Only one problem, the Green Bay Packers had moved on! And because of this, Brett Favre is now a New York Jet! If you look at the cover of Madden '09, it's Brett Favre on the cover in a Green Bay Packer uniform. As I said before, it seems that the Madden Curse only effects the athlete and the team, if he is on the SAME team throughout the year. Because Brett is now on the New York Jets, we are in new territory here! Does that mean that Green Bays' new quarterback AAron Rogers is going to have a bad year? Does this mean that the Green Bay Packers are destined to have a bad year? We don't know! We do know that Brett Favre is on the cover in a Green bay uniform and because of this I think that the curse will finally be broken! It could mean that the New York Jets could have a bad year! I don't know whats going to happen! But it will be an interesting year. Just hope that next year your favorite NFL athlete is not on the cover of Madden!
