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[Lucky Lefty]

The John Madden Football Curse

After hearing much about the John Madden Football Curse, where the player (and his team) that grace the front cover of John Madden Football end up having a sub par season the following year. Here are stats for each of the players:

Madden Year, Player, Season, Stats, Team Record, Notes

2009

Brett Favre 2008 ??? ???? ?????

2008

Vince Young 2007== 2546 Yards, 9TD, 17 INT 10-6 3rd place Vince Young finished with 9 touchdowns and 17 interceptions, but completed 62% of his passes and Tennessee went 10-6, losing to the Chargers in the first round of the playoffs.

2007

Shaun Alexander 2006== 896 Yards, 7 TD, 3.6 YPC 9-7 1st Place Shaun Alexander missed 6 regular season games with a broken foot. He finished the season with 896 yards and a 3.6 yard per carry average (well down from his 4.4 career yard per carry average). His 896 yards and 7 touchdowns were the lowest since his rookie season.

2006

Donovan McNabb 2005== 2507 Yards, 16 TD, 9 INT 6-10 4th place After week 9, Mcnabb suffered a hernia and was lost for the season. Mcnabb threw for more interceptions and his yards per attempt and completion percentage were down from 2004. The Eagles finished 6-10, in last place, and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

2005

Ray Lewis 2004== 147 Tak, 1 Sack 9-7 2nd Place 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.

2004

Michael Vick 2003== 585 Yards, 4 TD, 3 INT 5-11 4th Place Vick missed the first 11 games with a broken leg. Vick's QB rating, comp pct, and yards per attempt were all down from 2002.

2003

Marshall Faulk 2002== 212 Rush, 953 Yds, 8 TD 7-9 3rd Place 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.

2002

Daunte Culpepper 2001== 2612 Yds, 14 TD, 13 Int 5-11 4th Place Culpepper missed 4 games with injury, threw for 1300 less yards and 19 less TD's then in 2000. Minnesota's worst record since 1984.

2001

Eddie George 2000== 403 Rush, 1509 Yds, 14 TD 13-3 1st Place George's curse came in 2001 where he failed to break 1000 yards and Tennessee missed the playoffs going 7-9.

 

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Donuts.

 

[Frank Black]

VINCE YOUNG:

Vince Young was the poster boy on the Madden Cover this last season. He didn't have a stellar year and missed 2 games due to injury, but to me that does not come close to previous alleged Madden victims. So many players in the NFL miss 2 games a season so that in itself isn't a big deal. As seen below, Weiner Dog points out some improvements in Young's 2nd season from his 1st season.

As posted by Weiner Dog in a different thread:

"2006

QB rating - 66.7

Completion % - 51.5%

Yards/Attempt - 6.2 yards

Yards/Game - 146.6

2007

QB rating - 71.1

Completion % - 62.3%

Yards/Attempt - 6.7 yards

Yards/Game - 169.7

Most importantly, the Titans finished the '07 regular season with a 10-6 record and made the playoffs. In '06, the Titans finished 8-8 and obviously missed the playoffs.

Granted, Young's TD-INT ratio was worse in '07 (9-17) vs '06 (12-13) and this cannot entirely be blamed on the week WR/TE corp. Young has less rushing yards & TD's in '07, but I would assume most understand Young was battling a leg injury."

Weiner Dog points out some interesting #s here. Unlike Weiner Dog, I think his leg injury should be viewed differently, considering that Madden curse believes incorporate the injury factor into the curse.

EDDIE GEORGE:

I think that 939 rushing is not too shabby. Add his 279 receiving yards in 2001 and you have 1218 all purpose yards. His previous year was a career year, and his 2001 numbers were pretty much in line with at least a few of his other seasons.

BOTTOM LINE:

The Madden curse may be fun for some to talk about, but a curse is only a curse if it always applies. It's a stretch to say that the curse applies to George, there's a good argument that Vince Young wasn't affected, and you yourself appear to concede that Ray Lewis wasn't affected.

Here is what that leaves you with: (1) The curse skips the Titans, (2) the curse only applies to offensive players. Without going into any other arguments against the alleged curse, the above facts poke enough holes in the curse to invalidate it. Once we being making exceptions to the curse, the reasoning starts to disassemble.

 

[texasheat]

So since he is wearing a Packer jersey on the cover of the game, is the curse still in effect? This is some serious SH#@ here.

 

[Frank Black]

So since he is wearing a Packer jersey on the cover of the game, is the curse still in effect? This is

To digress a bit, I wonder if the trade + his wearing the Packer uniform on the cover adds to the monetary value of the original cover. I may take a look at Ebay to see if the prices of the original game are going up. If so, I see a buy low sell high opportunity.

 

[OddibeMcD]

So since he is wearing a Packer jersey on the cover of the game, is the curse still in effect? This is

To digress a bit, I wonder if the trade + his wearing the Packer uniform on the cover adds to the monetary value of the original cover. I may take a look at Ebay to see if the prices of the original game are going up. If so, I see a buy low sell high opportunity.

Will they be redoing the cover? Scarcity is the only thing that will drive the price up.

 

[Frank Black]

So since he is wearing a Packer jersey on the cover of the game, is the curse still in effect? This is

To digress a bit, I wonder if the trade + his wearing the Packer uniform on the cover adds to the monetary value of the original cover. I may take a look at Ebay to see if the prices of the original game are going up. If so, I see a buy low sell high opportunity.

Will they be redoing the cover? Scarcity is the only thing that will drive the price up.

I agree. I may buy now just in case, while the price is lower. If the cover remains unchanged, you can return within 30 days unopened.

 

[zed2283]

I'm wondering how Brett Favre made the cover to begin with? Didn't he retire in March? Did EASports know something we didn't??

 

[Lucky Lefty]

VINCE YOUNG:

Vince Young was the poster boy on the Madden Cover this last season. He didn't have a stellar year and missed 2 games due to injury, but to me that does not come close to previous alleged Madden victims. So many players in the NFL miss 2 games a season so that in itself isn't a big deal. As seen below, Weiner Dog points out some improvements in Young's 2nd season from his 1st season.

As posted by Weiner Dog in a different thread:

"2006

QB rating - 66.7

Completion % - 51.5%

Yards/Attempt - 6.2 yards

Yards/Game - 146.6

2007

QB rating - 71.1

Completion % - 62.3%

Yards/Attempt - 6.7 yards

Yards/Game - 169.7

Most importantly, the Titans finished the '07 regular season with a 10-6 record and made the playoffs. In '06, the Titans finished 8-8 and obviously missed the playoffs.

Granted, Young's TD-INT ratio was worse in '07 (9-17) vs '06 (12-13) and this cannot entirely be blamed on the week WR/TE corp. Young has less rushing yards & TD's in '07, but I would assume most understand Young was battling a leg injury."

Weiner Dog points out some interesting #s here. Unlike Weiner Dog, I think his leg injury should be viewed differently, considering that Madden curse believes incorporate the injury factor into the curse.

EDDIE GEORGE:

I think that 939 rushing is not too shabby. Add his 279 receiving yards in 2001 and you have 1218 all purpose yards. His previous year was a career year, and his 2001 numbers were pretty much in line with at least a few of his other seasons.

BOTTOM LINE:

The Madden curse may be fun for some to talk about, but a curse is only a curse if it always applies. It's a stretch to say that the curse applies to George, there's a good argument that Vince Young wasn't affected, and you yourself appear to concede that Ray Lewis wasn't affected.

Here is what that leaves you with: (1) The curse skips the Titans, (2) the curse only applies to offensive players. Without going into any other arguments against the alleged curse, the above facts poke enough holes in the curse to invalidate it. Once we being making exceptions to the curse, the reasoning starts to disassemble.

True Homer.... Eddie & Vince had awful yrs...

 

[texasheat]

I'm wondering how Brett Favre made the cover to begin with? Didn't he retire in March? Did EASports know something we didn't??

I'm thinking they did it as a tribute

 

[GregR_2]

It's a year or two old, but here is a Doug Drinen blog entry on the Madden Curse. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/blog/?p=154

I particularly like how he makes up a League Leading Rusher Curse and compares it to the Madden Curse using the same level of objectivity as gets used with Madden.

 

[BigSteelThrill]

Myth

Now eat your cereal and get to school.

 

[sholditch]

So since he is wearing a Packer jersey on the cover of the game, is the curse still in effect? This is some serious SH#@ here.

Good point. Anyone know a shaman or gypsy-woman?

 

[Chase Stuart]

I suspect Favre will throw an interception this year, proving that the Curse is for real.

 

[GregR_2]

I suspect Favre will throw an interception this year, proving that the Curse is for real.

Don't be a hater.

 

[Mystery Achiever]

So since he is wearing a Packer jersey on the cover of the game, is the curse still in effect? This is

To digress a bit, I wonder if the trade + his wearing the Packer uniform on the cover adds to the monetary value of the original cover. I may take a look at Ebay to see if the prices of the original game are going up. If so, I see a buy low sell high opportunity.

Jamal Anderson was on the radio with Max Kellerman today promoting the game's release. Max said Favre was saved from the curse because he was in the GB jersey and it was actually the team that was cursed. Jamal kidded that people should go out and buy it because it could be a collector's item. Then Max said the whole unretirement/trade thing was a marketing gimmick by EA Sports.

 

[JHuber77]

I suspect Favre will throw an interception this year, proving that the Curse is for real.

I can see the entire shark pool here watching ghost hunters during halftime while playing with voodoo dolls