Madden is one of the most look-forward-to releases on xbox and PS3 every year, and this year is no exception. For more than 20 years, this franchise has been an undeniably big hit. 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. The competetive side of the phenomenon has grown too, and now hundreds of pro Madden players make tons of money playing in tournaments. There is no other anuual release of any tyoe that demands the attention of Madden -- and the devotion, as bceomes clear when thousands of people take the day off work.
For all the good that comes with the hype and hysteria of Madden NFL, there is a downfall to the game's yearly release. For the 12 years Madden has been boasing an annual cover athlete, those athletes chosen seem to either play poorly that year, or suffer serious and season-ruining 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. For the first time in the series' history, two players graced the cover of Madden NFL 10. Troy Polomalu was shown head-to-head with a man he covered in Super Bowl XLIII; Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals. In the Steelers' first game of the season against the Tennessee Titans, Polamalu suffered a medial collateral ligament sprain while blocking a field goal. He missed the rest of the seson.
You'd think that players and coaches would have learned about the Madden curse by now. Athletes are notoriously superstitious, and next time Madden comes a callin', most would be better off to just decline. Whether you're just as superstitious, you can't deny the historical evidence of the Madeen curse's negative impact.
The History 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: 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.
The evidence is stacking up. Whether it's just the impact on your attitude after being featured, whether it just effects your concentration in the preseason and training camp, or whether it's something more...mysterious, who knows.
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