The release of Madden 11 will be one of the most hyped and anticipated events in 2010. Madden has been on the scene for 21 years, and pretty much everyone who is a fan of football or video games has picked it up and played. 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. Along with the game's popularity has grown a huge pro gaming industry, and now the world's top Madden players can make a living playing in tournaments or even just online. 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.
You might also think that players are honored and delighted to be featured on the game's cover. 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.
In the first week of the 2009 season, the Madden curse had already reared it's ugly head. Madden 10 was the first one to feature two cove athletes instead of just one. 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. The Steelers had to play the rest of the season without their star defensive player.
You'd think that players and coaches would have learned about the Madden curse by now. When EA Sports comes calling, it's probably in everybody's best interest to decline the offer regardless of how prestigious and financially rewarding the opportunity might be. Whether you're just as superstitious, you can't deny the historical evidence of the Madeen curse's negative impact.
Notable instances of the Madden NFL 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: Marking the beginning of the end of the "Greatest Show On Turf", Marshall Faulk of the Rams failed to rush for 1,000 yards in the 2001 season (for the first time since 1996) following his appearance on the cover of Madden 03 and his subsequent nagging ankle injury.
2004: The Falcons finished 5-11 in 2003 when their youg star dual-threat QB missed the entire season due to injury. Guess what? He had been featured on that year's Madden.
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?"
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