The Ten Year Curse Strikes Again
If yous're a football game fan, there's inappreciably a chance yous haven't heard of the "Madden" curse.
The apparent and infamous jinx goes like this: The player featured on the embrace of Electronic Arts' annual NFL video game is doomed to encounter something bad -- poor luck, a reject in play, or maybe a serious injury. It's superstition at its finest.
Did the expletive strike once again on Thursday nighttime in Denver?
With 10 minutes to play in the second quarter, quarterback Patrick Mahomes went downward and stayed down later apparently getting his genu rolled up on during a called quarterback sneak. The Chiefs sent the cart out for the reigning NFL MVP, just he waved it off and instead walked to the sideline with the assistance of trainers -- also displaying a noticeable limp. Shortly later, the Chiefs announced that Mahomes is out with a knee injury.
EA itself has publicly denied the existence of the curse, which tells you everything you demand to know about its popularity. (Don't go u.s. started on EA's now-forgotten plans of reportedly making a comedy movie near the curse.) Others, like cover athletes themselves, have panned the annual hullabaloo as a myth.
And yet, whether yous genuinely fearfulness your favorite team suffering at the easily of "Madden" or discover it all ridiculously silly, the curse has never quite gone abroad. Or has information technology?
Antonio Dark-brown was the cover star for "Madden 19," and he's currently out of the league. Let's reexamine the xx years of "Madden" covers before that, starting in 1999, when EA started using players in improver to and instead of coach John Madden -- all in hopes of discovering whether the curse is still a thing these days.
Here are all the covers since 1999, using the years from the "Madden" titles (example: "Madden 19" is released in 2018):
2000: John Madden, Detroit Lions RB Barry Sanders
Sanders is one of the greatest running backs to play the game, only his abrupt, unexpected and controversial retirement came in July 1999, significant he never set up human foot on the field after landing on "Madden." His deviation was so shocking that EA used the Green Bay Packers' Dorsey Levens for the cover of an alternative and European version of the game.
Verdict: Cursed
2001: Tennessee Titans RB Eddie George
George went on to blitz for more than than one,500 yards in his embrace flavor, but he also lost a career-loftier number of fumbles, coughed up the brawl in the Titans' season-catastrophe playoff game and never averaged more iii.four yards per acquit for the rest of his career.
Verdict: Cursed
2002: Minnesota Vikings QB Daunte Culpepper
After throwing 33 touchdowns and going 11-5 as a first-time starter in 2000, Culpepper took a nosedive during his cover season. Injuries wiped out six games, he fumbled xvi times, threw just 14 TDs compared to 13 picks and went iv-7 in his starts.
Verdict: Cursed
2003: St. Louis Rams RB Marshall Faulk
The Hall of Famer entered his cover season having logged five directly i,000-yard seasons and three straight 1,300-m campaigns. Only in 2002, Faulk broke down, missing almost a half-dozen starts and never topping ane,000 yards again.
Verdict: Cursed
2004: Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick
In the game, Vick was unstoppable thanks to his unmatched speed. On the field, despite exploding onto the scene as a No. 1 choice, a fractured fibula less than a week after the game'southward release sidelined him for all only five games. 4 years later on, he was in jail.
Verdict: Cursed
2005: Baltimore Ravens LB Ray Lewis
His interception total dropped from six to zero in 2004, his embrace year, and the Ravens also missed the playoffs. But that'southward nitpicking. He still logged 147 tackles. If we were talking about the next twelvemonth, in that location might be a example, as he missed 10 games.
Verdict: Non cursed
2006: Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb
McNabb hit his height in 2004, throwing 31 touchdowns and leading the Eagles to Super Bowl XXXIX. But 2005 was stone lesser. He scuffled with Terrell Owens and missed almost half of a 6-ten season. He went on to miss 8 games over the next two years, too.
Verdict: Cursed
2007: Seattle Seahawks RB Shaun Alexander
Like Faulk, he entered his cover yr with five straight 1,000-thou seasons under his belt. And his authorization also came to a halt. In 2006, his rushing total dropped from 1,880 to 896, and two years afterward, he was out of the NFL, a Washington Redskins washout.
Verdict: Cursed
2008: Tennessee Titans QB Vince Young
He was Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2006. For his cover yr, though, Young threw simply nine touchdowns compared to 17 interceptions, missed a game and earned a seat on the bench for 2008, never fully regaining Jeff Fisher's trust.
Verdict: Cursed
2009: Dark-green Bay Packers/New York Jets QB Brett Favre
EA began by making Favre the cover athlete as a tribute to his Packers career, which had just ended. But and then Favre forced his way out and into New York. All he did there was throw an NFL-high 22 INTs and injure his shoulder before moving to Minnesota.
Verdict: Cursed
2010: Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh Steelers SS Troy Polamalu
Fitz had one of his standard Pro Bowl seasons with more than than 1,000 yards, just Polamalu missed a career-high 11 games in 2009 cheers to an MCL injury, recording a career-low 20 tackles earlier sticking to the sidelines.
Verdict: One-half-cursed
2011: New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees
Throwing 33 TDs and earning another Pro Bowl selection is proficient stuff, but Brees had what constitutes as an off year the flavor he graced the cover, throwing a career-high and franchise-record 22 picks. His Saints likewise lost to the vii-nine Seahawks in the playoffs.
Verdict: Cursed
2012: Cleveland Browns RB Peyton Hillis
Y'all forgot nigh him, didn't yous? Hillis grunted his fashion to one,000 yards every bit a surprise lead back in 2010, but during his embrace twelvemonth, he missed a half-dozen games with an injury, averaged but 3.6 yards per carry and ran his style into a journeyman backup career.
Verdict: Cursed
2013: Detroit Lions WR Calvin Johnson
If anyone broke the expletive, it was Johnson, who had both a career and celebrated flavour the twelvemonth he was on the cover. Although, like Barry Sanders before him, he retired relatively early a few years later, 2012 saw him post a whopping one,964 receiving yards.
Verdict: Not cursed
2014: Minnesota Vikings RB Adrian Peterson
If Johnson shattered the expletive, Peterson may have reignited it in 2013. Fresh off his sixth one,000-chiliad season and 2 years removed from a historic 2,000-one thousand campaign, he missed all just i game afterwards being indicted on child abuse charges.
Verdict: Cursed
2015: Seattle Seahawks CB Richard Sherman
His interception total dropped, and his Seahawks failed to echo equally Super Bowl champions, merely otherwise, Sherman was still at the top of his game during his comprehend year. It was merely after the flavor he had to undergo Tommy John surgery.
Verdict: Not cursed
2016: New York Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr.
There's a example to be made that 2015, Beckham's cover year, is when the flamboyant WR really started rubbing people the wrong fashion, specially with a i-game break for his fight with Josh Norman. But he still dominated on the field with i,400 yards.
Verdict: Non cursed
2017: New England Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski
The five-time Pro Bowler was coming off another double-digit touchdown flavour in 2016, but he missed virtually all of the Patriots' start four games with a hamstring injury, so finished with just six starts due to a herniated disk and other injury bug.
Verdict: Cursed
2018: New England Patriots QB Tom Brady
With a take a chance to win a sixth Lombardi Trophy, Brady was bested by Eagles fill-in Nick Foles in Super Bowl LII. But he nevertheless threw for more than 500 yards in that game later winning yet another MVP laurels -- all at historic period twoscore. He's immune to the expletive.
Verdict: Not cursed
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What does history tell us, then? Using our verdicts, 9/ten cover athletes from 1999-2009 were cursed, whereas just 5.5/10 have been cursed in the last 10 years. The "Madden" curse may be live, but it may also be losing its power.
Or, yous know, it could just be fake.
Source: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/is-the-madden-cover-curse-still-a-thing-a-look-back-at-20-years-of-nfl-stars-offers-a-verdict/
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