The “Madden Curse” took another victim this year as Seattle Seahawks starting running back Shaun Alexander broke his left foot during a game against the New York Giants last week. This is the seventh consecutive player that has been hexed by the popular EA Sports video game Madden.
What is this “Madden Curse” you may ask? Well, the curse is rooted back to 2001 when NFL players first began posing on the cover of Madden. John Madden had been on the cover of the game since 1989, but in Madden 2001 EA Sports decided that putting marquee players on the front cover would be more appealing to consumers.
Little did EA Sports know that they would be cursing the player that would be on the front cover for that upcoming season. The curse comes in the form of either significant injury or a lackluster performance for that season.
The first player to grace the cover was Eddie George in Madden 2001. The season before George posed on the cover he accumulated 1,509 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns. He then doomed every future Madden cover star by starting the jinx in the 2001 season. George failed to break the 1000 yard rushing mark and suffered an all time low rushing average. Moreover, his team, the Tennessee Titans, missed the playoffs with a sub par 7-9 record.
In Madden 2002 it was Daunte Culpepper’s turn to get bit by the curse. In 2000 Culpepper had made an impressive NFL debut with the Minnesota Vikings taking them all the way to the NFC Championship game. After Culpepper posed on the cover he missed four games due to injury, threw for 1,300 less yards and 19 less touchdown’s than in 2001. The Vikings went 5-11 that season, the worst record for Minnesota since 1984.
Madden 2003 featured future hall of famer Marshall Faulk. In his 2002 season he rushed for 430 less yards and had four less touchdowns compared to his 2001 season despite playing in the same amount of games. This was Faulk’s worst season since 1996 and his St. Louis Rams went a dismal 7-9 finishing third in a four team division.
Electrifying Michael Vick appeared on the cover of Madden 2004 and was the worst struck by breaking his leg in the 2003 preseason. Vick missed the first eleven games of the season and his quarterback rating, completion percentage, and yards per attempt were all down significantly from his previous season. Subsequently, his Atlanta Falcons finished 5-11, which was last in their division.
On the cover of Madden 2005 was the most intimidating player in football, Ray Lewis. This nasty middle linebacker mostly escaped the jinx unscathed, but still had a much more mediocre season than usual. He missed one game in the 2004 season and his stats were slightly down from the year before. Moreover, he did not record a single interception that year, which was the first time that had ever happened in his illustrious career.
Madden 2006 featured Syracuse alum Donovan McNabb. McNabb suffered a sports hernia in the first game of the 2005 season. He played with the injury until after week nine when he opted for surgery and was lost for the remainder of the season. McNabb threw for more interceptions and his yards per attempts and completion percentage were down from the previous 2004 season. His Philadelphia Eagles finished in last place going 6-10 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1999.
Most recently 2005 MVP Shaun Alexander graced the cover of Madden 2007. Before the season rumors were flying that something would happen to Alexander because of his presence on the cover of Madden, and these speculations became reality when in week three of the 2006 season Alexander suffered a broken left foot in a game against the New York Giants. Alexander is out indefinitely at this point, and his recent injury provides even more evidence that the “Madden Curse” is for real.
This curse is only mere speculation as many people believe that this string of injuries and below average performances is coincidence and not a curse. On the contrary, the events that have unfolded after each player has appeared on the cover suggests otherwise. This jinx has been running for seven years, but still players insist that it does not exist. Maybe in the coming years a player will break the curse set forth by Eddie George, or EA Sports will put an end to the curse by putting John Madden back on the cover.
