Madden Curse!!

Could the curse strike again? Many around the gaming community and most avid Madden players are believers in the curse. Not the curse tabloids put on all of us talking about the Hilton sisters every day, but the dreaded 'Madden Cover Curse'. With the news that Steelers strong safety Troy Polamalu will be gracing the Madden 2010 cover, one can only wonder.

One possible loop hole with this years version though, could be the fact Polamalu is sharing the cover with Cardinals wideout Larry Fitzgerald. The shared cover has never been done before, so maybe only one of the players will be effected by the curse, maybe neither will be. Heck maybe there is no curse and we are all just crazy.

Superstitions are pretty prevalent in almost every sport. Whether its the North Carolina shorts that Michael Jordan wore under his Bulls shorts for every game, Patrick Roy talking to the goal posts, to Roger Clemens who always touched the head of the Babe Ruth statue before playing at Yankee stadium, sports athletes of all kinds follow this quirky behaviors because they believe in luck.

The same goes for curses, something that no sports player really like to talk about. The most famous curse is that of the Billy Goat, which seems to have decimating the Cubs, as they haven't been to a World Series in 63 years. Many of the most superstitious athletes happen to play baseball. But the most superstitious gamers are us Madden fans.

We are the believers for the most part. The ones who have created this phenominom. No other game has every caused so much commotion or worried fans of a team like Madden has. We all love the game but each and everyone of us dread this day. The day the announcement is made who will be on the cover of the next version of Madden. today is that day!

For those out there who are non-beloievers in the curse, let the proof be in the pudding. (I have no clue what that means but my grandad used to say it all the time, so it must hold merrit.)

1999 - Garrison Hearst is the first athlete to grace the cover of Madden. Before him it was always John Madden himself. Hearst has a great year but breaks his ankle in a play off game against the Falcons and is forced to miss two full seasons due to the injury and is never the same player again.

2000 - Hall of Famer and Lions great Barry Sanders is the cover boy. Sanders shocks the entire world and retires just 7 days into training camp.

2001 - Eddie George gets the cover and has his worst season ever. He fails to gain 1000 yards for the first time in his career and the next three seasons he is an after thought and retires.

2002 - Daunte Culpepper was on the cover of the game. He suffered severe setbacks in his output, throwing for far more interceptions and less touchdowns. Culpepper never looked like the same player as he did the previous season when he threw 40 touchdowns. He also suffered a serious injury that cost him to miss 4 games and pretty much ruin his career.

2003 - Marshall Faulk gets the call to be on the cover. Despite playing the same amount of games, Faulk rushed for 430 less yards and had 4 less TDs compared to 2001.  Faulk's worst season since 1996. Rams scored only 16 more points then their 1996 team who had Tony Banks at QB and Lawrence Phillips at RB.  

2004 - Michael Vick appeared on the cover of the game. Unfortunately, Vick broke his leg during a pre-season game before the season even started and missed most of the season. The previous year he had his best statistical season of his career. Vick never again touched those numbers, and was found guilty on organizing a dog-fighting ring. He is currently in jail and scared to death to drop the soap while in the shower.

2005 - Ray Lewis for the most part avoided the curse.  His numbers were slightly down from the year before, but he missed one game.  He did not record an interception in 2004, the first time in his career. 

2006 - Donovan McNabb appeared on the cover of Madden. Prior to that season, McNabb had a career year and the Eagles made it to the Superbowl. The curse hit him in early in the season where he suffered a hernia. He tried to fight through the pain for most of the season and played terribly, throwing a large number of interceptions. His season was cut short when he was knocked out of the game against the Dallas Cowboys and then decide to have surgery to repair the hernia ending his season. The Eagles finished 5-11, their worst record in half a decade.

2007 - Shaun Alexander appeared on the cover. Much like the trend before this, prior to this season, Alexander had MVP numbers and set an NFL record with 27 touchdowns. Alexader broke his foot early on in the season causing him to miss almost half the season, and his own touchdown record was broken by LaDainian Tomlinson. Alexander is now on the back of milk cartons all over the country.

2008 - Vince Young appeared on the cover. He missed one game with a quadricep injury but fared very similar statistically to his rookie campaign. Besides a terrible passing season where he threw 17 interceptions and a rumor that he was going to retire, he remained relatively healthy. Since then, VY has been linked to suicide rumors and lost his job to a career bum, Kerry Collins.

2009 - Brett Favre was the first retired player ever to grace the covers of Madden. Then he un-retires, gets into a 'he said, she said' battle with Packers management, gets traded to the Jets plays decent for half a season and chokes his teams play off chances down the stretch before retiring again.

2010 - Troy polamalu & Larry Fitzgerald.........

Pittsburgh Blitz