Madden NFL 16: Exploring History of Infamous 'Madden Curse' Before Release Date
Curses in sports are silly.
They're plain asinine when it comes to sports video games. Apparently, not everyone shares that opinion because when Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants won the cover vote for Madden 16, which will be released on August 25, there were still tweets like this one from Albert Alvarez of DiamondBoxing.com:
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Thankfully, Beckham Jr. doesn't buy into this malarkey. Per ESPN.com's Dan Graziano, Beckham answered a question about the Madden curse like this: “I don’t know what a jinx is. It’s definitely a blessing to be on the cover. It was a surprise to be in the running after just a year, but it’s definitely exciting.”
In a nutshell, the Madden curse causes the athlete pictured on the cover to get injured or to have a horrible season the year he appears on the game. The main issue with this "curse" is that it's hard to get people to agree upon its terms.
Come on people, even if you did believe in curses of this sort, doesn't there need to be some consistency with the results?
Is it just the following year, or does it follow the guy for the rest of his life? If the latter is the case, that's pretty silly considering no human being is going to go through life without having something negative happen to him personally and professionally.
If Tom Brady had been on a cover at any point in the last 10 years, would Deflategate be evidence that the curse exists? Isn't this just ridiculous?
Here's a look at the players who have been on the cover and their stats the following season:
| Eddie George | Madden 2001 | 16 games, 1,304 yards, nine TDs | 16 games, 1,504 yards 14 TDs |
| Daunte Culpepper | Madden 2002 | 16 games, 3,937 yards, 33 TDs. 16 INTs | 11 games, 2,612 yards, 14 TDs, 13 INTs |
| Marshall Faulk | Madden 2003 | 14 games, 2,147 yards from scrimmage, 21 TDs | 14 games, 1,490 yards from scrimmage, 10 TDs |
| Michael Vick | Madden 2004 | 15 games, 2,936 passing yards, 777 rushing yards, 24 total TDs | 5 games, 585 passing yards, 255 rushing yards, five total TDs |
| Ray Lewis | Madden 2005 | 16 games, 120 tackles | 15 games, 100 tackles |
| Donovan McNabb | Madden 2006 | 15 games, 3,875 passing yards, 31 TDs, eight INTs | 9 games, 2,507 passing yards, 16 TDs, nine INTs |
| Shawn Alexander | Madden 2007 | 16 games, 1,880 rushing yards, 27 TDs | 10 games, 896 rushing yards, seven TDs |
| Vince Young | Madden 2008 | 15 games, 2,199 passing yards, 12 TDs, 13 INTs | 15 games, 2,546 passing yards, nine TDs and 17 INTs |
| Brett Favre | Madden 2009 | 16 games, 4,155 passing yards, 28 TDs, 15 INTs | 16 games, 3,472 passing yards, 22 TDs, 22 INTs |
| Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald | Madden 2010 | Polamalu: 16 games, 54 tackles and seven INTs; Fitzgerald: 16 games, 96 receptions, 1,431 yards and 12 TDs | Polamalu: five games, 18 tackles and three INTs; Fitzgerald: 16 games, 97 receptions, 1,092 yards and 13 TDs |
| Drew Brees | Madden 2011 | 15 games, 4,388 passing yards, 70.6 completion percentage, 34 TDs, 11 INTs | 16 games, 4,620 passing yards, 68.1 completion percentage, 33 TDs, 22 INTs |
| Peyton Hillis | Madden 2012 | 16 games, 1,177 yards, 11 TDs | 10 games, 587 yards, three TDs |
| Calvin Johnson | Madden 2013 | 16 games, 96 receptions, 1,681 yards, 16 TDs | 16 games, 122 receptions, 1,964 yards, five TDs |
| Barry Sanders/Adrian Peterson | Madden 25 | Peterson: 16 games, 2,097 rushing yards, 12 TDs | Peterson: 14 games, 1,266 rushing yards, 10 TDs |
| Richard Sherman | Madden 15 | 16 games, eight INTs | 16 games, four INTs |
| Odell Beckham Jr. | Madden 16 | 12 games, 91 receptions, 1.305 receiving yards, 12 TDs | ??? |
The Discrepancies
Obviously, we see players such as Michael Vick and Marshall Faulk who undoubtedly had poor seasons after appearing on the cover. However, what about the guys who didn't?
Ray Lewis, 2004
Baltimore Ravens legend and two-time Super Bowl winner (one pre-cover, one post-cover) Ray Lewis was the cover athlete for Madden 2005.
Because the title of the game is always a year ahead of the season, the campaign that immediately followed his appearance was 2004. Lewis played in 15 games, had 101 tackles and was named first team All-Pro by the Associated Press.
Where's the curse there?
His tackles dropped by 20, but he played in one fewer game. At that stage of Lewis' career, he might have had 20 in a game. Lewis' season was stellar, so apparently the "curse" had mercy on him in 2004.
Maybe it was the pregame dance.
Vince Young, 2007
Some might argue that Vince Young was bitten by the curse because he didn't have a very good sophomore season with the Tennessee Titans; however, one could also argue his rookie season was a little overrated. Thus, he's probably the second-worst Madden cover guy—in regards to performance prior to the honor—behind Peyton Hillis on Madden 12.
Young was on the cover of Madden 08 after a rookie season that saw him throw for 2,199 yards, 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He completed 51.5 percent of his passes as a rookie. That's not a great season, is it?
He did run for 552 yards and seven touchdowns too.
In his second season, his touchdowns dropped to nine, and his interceptions went up to 17. He also rushed for just 395 yards and three touchdowns. On a positive note, he completed 62.3 percent of his passes and led the Titans to the playoffs.
Do team results matter, or do we just factor those in if the team sucks?
Larry Fitzgerald, 2009
Madden 10 was the only cover to feature two players. The Pittsburgh Steelers' Troy Polamalu and the Arizona Cardinals' Larry Fitzgerald shared the cover after battling it out in the Super Bowl.
Polamalu suffered an injury that clearly fed the curse lovers. However, Fitzgerald had a great season. He set a career high in touchdowns with 13 and hauled in 97 receptions for 1,092 yards. He also played in all 16 games.
Maybe the curse only affected Polamalu because he did really bad shampoo commercials.
Drew Brees, 2010
The next year, the New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees graced the cover of Madden 11. His 2010 season fell right in line with the rest of his amazing years with the Saints.
Brees led the NFL in completion percentage for the second of what would be three years in a row. He threw for 4,620 yards, which was more than he had the previous year, and 33 touchdown passes.
He did throw a career-high 22 interceptions, and an upstart Seattle Seahawks team upset the Saints in the playoffs, but are we going to try to hold up the curse on those two things?
The key to believing in the curse must be selective acknowledgement.
Calvin Johnson, 2012
This case may blow all the others out of the water. Calvin Johnson set the NFL single-season record for receiving yards with 1,964 the same year he was on the cover of Madden 13.
He had 122 receptions that season and a game in which he set the record for most yards in a four-quarter contest with 329. Megatron doesn't believe in curses.
Richard Sherman, 2014
You can't judge a cornerback by his stats. Once a guy has established himself as a shutdown corner, his interceptions go down because teams stop throwing the ball his way. Such is the case with Seattle's Richard Sherman.
Sherman's interception total dropped from eight to four from 2013 to 2014, but his level of play did not fall off. Pro Football Focus ranked Sherman the 17th-best player overall and the third-best cornerback from the 2014 season.
Here's how it broke down Sherman's campaign:
"Sherman pushed himself into a Top 20 spot with a fantastic postseason for the second year running. A cornerback who has cultivated a fear in quarterbacks, scared to go near him for fear of the consequences, there were only two games all season where he earned a -1.0 or worse grade in coverage. When you are as verbally active as Sherman you need to back it up on the field, and once again he has.
"
Is it just fun to think about the impending misfortune of rich athletes, or do we really believe this curse exists?
Unfortunately, it might be the former. For that reason, hopefully this thing gets put to rest for good when Beckham Jr. has another solid season for the Giants in 2015.
Even if he doesn't, it won't be because of a curse.
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