Madden Strikes Again

Superstitions are everywhere—especially in sports—but I never really bought into them when I was playing. I changed my sox, underwear and all that before every game. And normally I don't believe in curses, hexes and bad luck, but this Madden Curse thing is crazy. If you've ever played the John Madden video game, then you've probably heard of the Madden Curse. If not, get familiar. Since '99, the first year the game didn't feature Madden himself, legend has it that the player featured on the cover has a horrible year—whether it be a decline in performance, or an injury.

'99-Garrison Hearst-Dude had a catastrophic leg injury. The kind that ends your career

'00-Barry Sanders-Wasn't really on the cover, just in the background behind John Madden's shoulder. He still got hit. Retired before the season started.

'00-Dorsey Levens-Had only 224 yards the year after recording 1,034 rushing yards in 1999. He pretty much fell off the map.

'01-Eddie George-Before Cover: 1,375, 3.9 ypc. After Cover: 932, 3.3 ypc.

'02-Daunte Culpepper-3,853 Passing Yards, 18 TD, 23 INT, 75.5 Passer Rating, 21 fumbles. Vikings ended 6-10 after starting 4-7. Eventually fell to a knee injury

'03-Marshall Faulk-After hitting the 1,000 yard rushing mark in 7 out of 9 seasons, Faulk never hit the mark again. 209 Attempts, 818 Rushing Yards, 3.9 YPC, 10 TD the season after.

'04-Michael Vick-My man broke his fibula literally days after the game was released. Missed all but 5 games of season, and the Falcons ended up with a 5-11 record. Oh yeah, and he went to jail.

'05-Ray Lewis-Some say he broke the curse, but he did break his wrist in the second to last game of the season, only tallied 46 tackles, one sack, and one interception the year after. 2005 is the only season Lewis didn't make the Pro Bowl in his career.

'06-Donovan McNabb-Well, the Eagles got TO that year. That can be seen as a curse in and of itself. But McNabb also suffered a sports hernia in the first game of the season, feuded all year with Team Obliterator, and finally decided to have his injury surgically repaired, effectively ending his season after only 10 games.

'07-Shaun Alexander-Never missed a game until gracing the cover. He cracked his foot in the season and missed six games, never to be heard from again. I don't even know if dude is in the league anymore.

'08-Vince Young-Went from hero in the College Football National Championship Game to threatening retirement and being benched. Threw only 9 TDs and 17 interceptions.

'09-Brett Favre-Came out of retirement, traded to the Jets, started out well, but team finished 9-7 and Favre threw 5 INTs in the last four games, putting the team out of the playoffs. Also tore his biceps tendon and became insufferable.

And that brings us to this years cover which features Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals. Welp, last night the Madden Curse gave Troy the business. The Titan vs Steelers game saw the cover-boy leave the field with a knee injury. This after receiving three personal foul penalties. Reports hint that he’ll be out for three to six weeks.

Larry Fitgerald is nervous right now. If I were him, I'd be going to every video game store, buying up copies and whiting me out of every one of them. Either that or go Paris Hilton and jack a bunch of copies like she did when her porn tape was out. It's crazy. And Fitz, tell Kurt Warner you're not going high over the middle for any passes. Just stay down! EA should really consider leaving the cover of next year's Madden entry completely blank—either that, or just feature a generic picture of a football or a stadium or something. Why would you want to be on that thing, anyway? LT turned it down in '08. Shaun Alexander said, "Do I want to be on Madden and hurt, or just hurt?" Well, I'm not going out like a punk. All I know is that if somebody asked me, I'd say HELL NAW! It's not goin' down like that.