Madden curse
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The Madden Curse, also known as the Madden Cover Curse, is a speculation involving the video game series Madden NFL, stating that the season a player appears on the cover of Madden NFL, that player will be cursed with either an injury or poor performance.
Before 1998, the cover included only an image of John Madden. Players who have appeared on the cover in subsequent years have generally failed to reproduce their success of the previous years, for a variety of reasons. Marshall Faulk, Daunte Culpepper, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, and Shaun Alexander all have suffered injuries in their season appearing on the cover. These performances and injuries resulted in speculation of a curse. The "Madden Curse" has evolved into a much-reported phenomenon, with several news and sports media outlets referring to it as a phenomenon on par with the fabled Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx.
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[edit] Allegedly cursed
[edit] Garrison Hearst (1999)
Garrison Hearst was the first player to ever be featured on a Madden cover, appearing on Madden NFL '99. Hearst's 1998 season was the best of his career, rushing for 1570 yards and seven touchdowns. He led the San Francisco 49ers to the playoffs, but on the first play of the game versus the Atlanta Falcons, he suffered a bad ankle break. He would not play again until the 2001 season.
(It is worth noting that there are two versions of the Madden NFL '99 cover, one with Hearst and one with John Madden.)
[edit] Barry Sanders and Dorsey Levens (2000)
Barry Sanders shared the cover with the then-customary picture of John Madden on Madden NFL 2000. However, a week before training camp began in 1999, Sanders abruptly retired - ending his career and leaving the Detroit Lions without their star running back of the previous 10 years. Sanders' part in the curse is debated because he is not pictured alone on the box, and he had willingly retired. Dorsey Levens was featured on the 2000 cover that was released in PAL regions. After rushing for 1,034 yards in 1999, he gained only 224 yards from scrimmage in 2000. Ultimately, Levens was cut by the Green Bay Packers in 2001, and retired, as a Packer, in 2004, after playing as a journeyman who had 1-season stints with both the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants.
[edit] Eddie George (2001)
Eddie George, then of the Tennessee Titans, who graced the Madden NFL 2001 box, is often said to be the next 'cursed' player, even though in the year he was on the cover, he had career highs in yardage and touchdowns. Curse advocates point to the 2001 season following his appearance on the cover, during which he averaged only 3 yards per carry and rushed for career lows of 939 yards and 5 touchdowns. For the rest of his career, he never averaged more than 3.4 yards per carry, but did rush for over 1,000 yards twice and scored 14 touchdowns in 2002.
(It is worth noting that curse advocates ignore the season following the appearance on the cover for some of the other listed players, notably Vick who had career bests in a number of categories in 2004 after being on the Madden 2004 cover).
[edit] Daunte Culpepper (2002)
Former Minnesota Vikings star quarterback Daunte Culpepper appeared on the Madden NFL 2002 cover, and the Vikings struggled to a 4-7 record until Culpepper was shelved with a season-ending knee injury.
[edit] Marshall Faulk (2003)
Running back Marshall Faulk of the St. Louis Rams, who was on the Madden NFL 2003 box, suffered an ankle injury, missing five games. He never broke through the 1,000 yards rushing mark for the rest of his career.
[edit] Michael Vick (2004)
Very shortly after Madden 2004 was released featuring Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick on the cover, Vick was injured during a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens, suffering a fractured right fibula. Vick played in only the last 5 regular season games, finishing with just 585 yards passing and 4 touchdowns. The Atlanta Falcons missed the playoffs and were already out of contention by the time Vick returned from his injury. The "curse" forced the Falcons to finish the season with a record of 5 wins and 11 losses, a stark contrast to the team's 9-6-1 record the season prior.
[edit] Ray Lewis (2005)
Madden 2005 featured Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens, the first defensive player ever to appear on the cover of a Madden game. He broke his wrist, an injury that kept him out of the last game of the regular season. It was also Lewis' first season without a single interception, after posting a career-high 6 the previous year - although admittedly, interceptions are a secondary statistic for linebackers. The Baltimore Ravens also failed to make the playoffs that season (2004), after winning their division the year before. Furthermore, in Week 6 of the 2005 season, Ray Lewis' season was ended by an injury.
[edit] Donovan McNabb (2006)
After leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2004, the Philadelphia Eagles' star quarterback Donovan McNabb was on the cover of Madden NFL 06. During the 2005 season, McNabb suffered a sports hernia in the first game of the season against the Atlanta Falcons. Even though it needed surgery McNabb continued to play through the injury.[1] In the tenth game of the season, McNabb re-injured his groin when he threw an interception that was returned by Roy Williams against the Dallas Cowboys, and subsequently decided to have season-ending surgery for his sports hernia. [2] [3] Throughout the 2005 season, McNabb had had a highly-publicized feud with his teammate, wide receiver Terrell Owens.
[edit] Shaun Alexander (2007)
Prior to the 2006 season, Alexander had never missed a full game in his entire seven-season NFL career. In the 2006 season, however, Madden NFL 07 cover-athlete and reigning NFL MVP Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks suffered a fracture in his 4th metatarsal in his left foot which he received during the first game of the season against the Detroit Lions. Alexander attempted to play through the injury, but was relatively ineffective. After the Seahawks third game, it was announced that his injury was worse than originally thought, and Alexander missed the next six games.[4] Alexander rushed for 896 yards (3.6 yards per carry) in the 2006 season, as opposed to 1,880 yards (5.1 yards per carry) in the 2005 season. In addition, Alexander's record of most touchdowns per season lasted only one year, as his 2005 record was broken by LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006.
[edit] Criticisms
While it appears that the victims to the curse have had off seasons after performing exceptionally well, many regard this as simple regression towards the mean.[5] That is, these featured athletes' performances are so outstanding that in fact they should not be expected to repeat them. Many factors contribute to the lesser (though not necessarily poor) performance of these athletes, such as injuries, which are treated more as expectations than surprises in the sport. Also, defenses usually key in on a player who had an exceptional season prior. Finally, the idea of having a "best season" entails that only one season will be a best season. More explicitly, one cannot have two best seasons and any given best season cannot be beaten.
Another issue in some cases may be the matter of workload. Both Eddie George in 2000 and Shaun Alexander in 2005 recorded career highs in carries. This high workload contributed to their impressive totals in yards and touchdowns, but the additional wear and tear this workload entailed may have contributed to their injuries in the following seasons.
Eddie George's so-called curse, unlike the others, did not actually occur the year he was on the cover of Madden. George had a career year in 2000 when he was on the cover of Madden NFL 2001. It wasn't until the 2001 season that George had a down year and his career began to deteriorate. However, this was the year Daunte Culpepper was on the cover of Madden. George's curse can be argued to have started the year he was on the cover because of the 2000-2001 AFC Championship game where George had a costly fumble that lost the game for Tennessee.
[edit] References
- ^ McNabb's sports hernia no laughing matter from MSNBC.com, posted 11 October, 2005.
- ^ McNabb has history with 'cursed' products. ESPN (2005-06-17). Retrieved on July 21, 2006.
- ^ Cover and out? McNabb latest Madden star to fall. ESPN (2005-11-21). Retrieved on July 21, 2006.
- ^ Alexander a victim of Madden curse?. The Mercury News (2006-09-25). Retrieved on September 30, 2006.
- ^ Curses from Pro-Football-Reference, posted 29 September, 2006.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Madden NFL Cover Athletes |
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'00: Barry Sanders | '00: Dorsey Levens | '01: Eddie George | '02: Daunte Culpepper | '03: Marshall Faulk | '04: Michael Vick | '05: Ray Lewis | '06: Donovan McNabb | '07: Shaun Alexander Related: The "Madden Curse" |
