Madden Cover Curse

With McNabb out, Does the Curse Really Exist?

By Roberta Dooms

Published: Thursday, December 1, 2005

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb reportedly underwent successful surgery for a sports hernia on Monday and a right groin injury. His likely season-ending surgery might have been a straw at the end of the bridge for what has been more then a tumultuous season for the Eagles.

Many sports fans may want to blame the beginning of the Eagles problems on their outspoken receiver Terrell Owens. However, the Eagles and McNabb's problems may have started the moment he took the cover of the popular Madden 2006, a game named after football commentator and former coach John Madden.

Ever since NFL players began to be featured on the cover in 2001, the players who have appeared have had suspicious turns in their careers that many has been referred to as the 'Madden Curse.'

"There is a trend amongst players who appear on the Madden cover especially in the past few years," said DeMario Greene, a freshman political science major.

The trend started when then Tennessee Titan running back, Eddie George, appeared on the first player edition cover. George, in his previous four years before appearing on the cover, had not had a season where he rushed for under 1,290 yards in a season.

In the 2001 season, George rushed for a mere 939 yards with an average of three yards per carry, which was a career low for the year in the yards per carry average. George, however, did reach some heights. He had a career high eight fumbles with six of them being lost fumbles. George is no longer in the NFL after nine seasons.

"The Madden Curse is very real...All you have to do is look at the facts," says marketing major Marcus Craddock.

A fact that could be looked at is that the only quarterbacks that have appeared on the cover have been black; the first being Daunte Culpepper. In 2002, after Culpepper graced the cover of Madden he had the worst passer rating of his career when he has played 16 games of 75.3. Culpepper is out for the rest of this the season after tearing three knee ligaments. The Vikings were 2-5 with him, they are now 4-0 without him.

The 2003 cover player, Marshall Faulk, is trying to work his way from sitting next to a water cooler as has also been plagued with injuries and low stats the last few seasons.

At the brink of moving from superstardom to international stardom, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was on Madden's 2004 game cover. Five days after the game was released in stores Vick broke his ankle in a meaningless pre-season game against the Baltimore Ravens. Vick sat out 11 games and the Falcons contending season was over before it started.

These things that have happened to the players might be coincidences and some say that one cannot blame a curse.

"To blame the entirety of this misfortune on a game cover curse seems a bit ludicrous. Misfortune befalls those who do and do not grace the cover every single year." Greene said. "We just focus on that player because he so happened to be on the cover. Every player, at one point or another, gets injured. It is merely the nature of the sport."

Antoine Anderson, a television production major whom considers himself an Eagles fan in "hibernation", shares his thoughts on what the Madden cover may mean in the future.

"I think some players will think twice in the future about being on the cover of Madden but it won't influence their decision too much because they are still getting paid for it," Anderson said.

Last year's cover man, linebacker Ray Lewis, has remained with Baltimore Ravens as he and the team are currently trying not to have the worst season in Ravens history.

Believe it or not, with history and the status of Donovan McNabb, it seems that there has been a steady downward trend with the effects of being featured on the cover of Madden.

haha, it's crazy.

then again, if any of the following:

corey dillon
tom brady
byron leftwich
ben roethlisberger

to name a few, had been on the front cover, the same story would have gone out.

guess the colts are happy peyton manning wasn't on it... :)