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RSS FeedThe Madden NFL curse: Fact or fluff?
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| Fact | 39% | 50 votes | Total: 129 votes | |
| Fluff | 61% | 79 votes |
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Add to FavoritesI shouldn't believe in sports curses, and neither should you.
I shouldn't believe in them because so often we've seen sports' "cursed souls" break through their curses. Michael Jordan never seemed too bothered by being on the cover of Sports Illustrated, nor does Tiger Woods, but the SI Cover Jinx is well-publicized. The Chicago White Sox weren't hindered by ghosts of Joe Jackson and Charlie Comiskey in 2005 when they won the World Series, nor were the Boston Red Sox a year prior held back by Babe Ruth's spirit. The 1994 New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup despite allegedly being cursed as a result of the last Ranger team before them to win Lord Stanley's Cup using the trophy as a toilet some fifty years earlier.
Still, despite seeing curses broken left and right across sports, there's one supposed jinx that I'm all but forced to buy into: the Madden Cover. The football player to make the cover of Madden NFL Football has performed below expectations every year since Electronic Arts stopped putting Madden himself on the cover. I believe in this curse because weeks before Madden NFL 2009 is released to the general public the curse has already struck. Maybe the player himself hasn't fallen to an injury and hasn't thrown an interception as a result of the cover yet, but the jersey he's wearing on that cover has taken a hit. (For those of you who do not know, the cover of Madden 09 will feature none other than Brett Favre.) The Packers-who are featured on the cover by virtue of Favre being in their uniform in the picture-are in the midst of a public relations fight that they simply can't win. Favre has returned, and wants to leave. The team is surrounded by controversy and the players are hounded by questions about their "retired" "former" teammate.
A Green Bay quarterback is on the cover, but he won't be Green Bay's opening day starter. The Packers' real starting quarterback-who would have enough problems getting out of Favre's shadow without all this-is going to be the most closely-watched player in the NFL until the regular season is well underway. That sort of pressure is often terrible for such a signal caller, especially one trying to transition himself into a starting role. To top it all off, there are no guarantees that the NFL's career leader in interceptions thrown is going to step onto a new squad and pick up where he left off. At Favre's age, injuries and poor performance are both entirely possible, even if they're words you'd never use to describe Favre's playing career until this point.
Vince Young had a tremendous rookie season in 2006. Tennessee was back on the NFL map when Young started scrambling, breaking tackles and making tremendous throws. Coming into 2007, Young was considered the quarterback to watch. That's when Vince Young was placed on the cover of Madden 2008. The Titan quarterback had a season that made some question whether he deserved the hype he had been given. Madden 2006's cover featured Donovan McNabb, who sustained an injury during the season. The next year it was Shaun Alexander on the cover, and the reigning MVP of the time missed six weeks due to injury.
No player featured on the cover of Madden has won a Super Bowl after being featured. Considering that the featured player is almost always a key figure in the NFL that's a bit hard to believe. But that's where we stand.
In reality, of course this is a coincidence. There's nothing about being photographed for a video game cover that makes a player get hurt or play below expectations. But the Madden Curse is so prevalent that Brett Favre came out of retirement just to give it another chance to rear its ugly head. So worrisome that some people believe LaDanian Tomlinson rejected the cover of Madden NFL 2008 to avoid it-and not for contract issues as Tomlinson has stated in the past.
And as much as I'm loathe to believe in curses, if I were planning a Fantasy Football draft, no matter who he played for I wouldn't dare take Brett Favre knowing he's on the cover...
Learn more about this author, Timothy Williams.
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Fluff
Is the Madden Curse fact, or fiction? We may never know. What can be said, however, is that this whole hubbub is a lot more exaggerated then most people make it out to be. Sure, for the last couple of years players who have appeared on the cover of the recent Madden titles have gotten injured, but it is clearly ludicrous to blame this on some random curse when football is the sport that it is. It is physical, it is dangerous. Deal with it.
Now, we all know football is a physical sport. And we all know that people get hurt all of the time (just look at the Giants ending roster the year before last). Because of this, it is not plausible to believe that just because a player lands a lead on a cover he will be injured for that reason and that reason alone. Things happen. All it takes is a random mishap to occur such as a player landing the wrong way or being tackled too hard and he is injured.
Another thing that should be pointed out is the extreme pressure that comes with knowing that you are potentially cursed by accepting the cover role. Think about it: If you knew that every player before you that was on the cover was injured, do you not think that you would be taking every measure to avoid being hurt? Once more, do you not think that with those measures that there is a greater chance for that player to be hurt? It is not the curse, but the idea of it that may be causing these injuries.
Finally, do you not believe it stupid that we are placing so much weight on something that has only been going on for the last few years? It could be understood if it were a streak of say, 30-40 years, but it is not. Instead, it is a streak that has yet to even break a decade. When it breaks a decade, we can talk. Until then, it is folly to believe that this curse is nothing more then in the minds of the individuals who are spreading it.
That is what it is, though, in all essence gossip. Someone who got a cover shot gets hurt from a minor injury and is instantly considered a victim because "The curse did it". That is an excuse, a stupid one at that. The player got hurt from something that either he did mistakenly, or what situations demanded. Not what some curse did. This curse is merely a head game, and anyone who believes it needs to sit down and look at the factual evidence of why the injury happened.
Which summarizes every point made quite nicely: The Madden curse is nothing more than a cheap ploy on the conscious of the people around us. Football is a physical sport, and this idiocy of believing that someone will be hurt because of some cover shot is lunacy at best, especially when people get hurt all the time from easily explainable things. The Madden curse is a false, carefully spread gossip that needs to stop.
Learn more about this author, Lucas Brooks.
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