Month: October 2018

Is the Madden Curse Real?

 

Madden NFL is a long-running football video game franchise produced by EA. After EA founder Trip Hawkins approached hall of fame coach John Madden with the original idea for the game, the first issue was released in 1988. EA has released annual copies of the game since 1990, and when the company received the rights to use the NFL and its players in the game the game really exploded in popularity. Now the company has sold over 130 million copies and as of 2013 has built up over $4 billion in revenue.

 

Each year since 1999, a player is chosen by fans to be on the front cover of each copy sold, and since Garrison Hearst has first appeared on the cover in Madden 99, a curse has been attributed to earning the cover. However, does the curse really happen each year?

 

Garrison Hearst was the first ever cover athlete and appeared on the front of Madden 99. The Georgia running back was drafted by the then-Phoenix Cardinals, and later joined the 49ers, where he set club records for all-purpose yards from scrimmage in a single season in 1998. However, in the ‘99 NFL season Hearst suffered a horrific injury in the form of a broken ankle, and after complications during surgery, a bone in his foot died. Hearst spent over two years recovering from the injury, and although he won NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2001, he never saw the same levels of success. Hearst certainly received the worst of the infamous curse, in which he suffered from an injury that severely affected a large bulk of his career.

 

However, the “curse” wasn’t really talked about until Daunte Culpepper’s knee injury he suffered in the Viking’s 2001 campaign. In 2000, Culpepper threw for over 4000 yards, rushed for 500, and led the Vikings to an 11-5 record and a trip to the NFC championship game. Several games into the 2001 season, Culpepper was voted to star as the Madden NFL 2002 cover athlete. Soon after, Culpepper suffered a season-ending knee injury and was forced to miss the rest of the 2001 season, and the next season threw 23 interceptions to only 18 touchdowns.

 

However the curse doesn’t always hit, wide receivers Calvin “Megatron” Johnson and Odell Beckham Jr. recorded career season after appearing on the covers of Madden 13 and Madden 16 respectively. Johnson broke multiple NFL records in the Lion’s 2012 season, including the single-season record for yards at 1964 and tied the record for consecutive 100-yard performances. Although not breaking records, Beckham had a career year as well, putting up 1450 yards and 13 touchdowns. Both receivers were named to the Pro Bowl and are likely future Hall of Famers.

 

In the majority of cases, the “curse” truly does strike. Quite often, the curse results in serious injury for the player or an out of place losing season for the player’s team. Superstition is rampant in almost every sport, and the Madden curse is one of the most famous examples of it.

 

Let’s take a break from football for a bit.

Sports has long been a key part of pop culture and today’s athletes often have a large involvement in many facets of society. Since the likes of Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and most importantly Jackie Robinson, athletes have often taken a stand for what’s right and stepped aside from sports to take up a more significant role in order to right some serious wrongs in society.

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson has one of, if not the most, important legacies in the history of any sport. Robinson was the first African-American athlete to play in the Jim Crow era of baseball, and despite the rampant racism and some of his teammates threatening to leave the Brooklyn Dodgers, he managed to break the colour-barrier in all American sports with his impressive and groundbreaking play. Robinson was also an incredibly important figure off the baseball field. He was a catalyst in the starting of the civil rights movement and took part in Martin Luther King’s March on Washington with his son. The number 42 is now retired across the MLB, and he was named to the league’s all-century team and is a hall of famer. Without Robinson’s massive impact on racism in America, this country would likely be an entirely different place.

Colin Kaepernick

With Jackie Robinson opening the door for many other athletes to have a larger role off the field. The most recent example of this is Colin Kaepernick, who famously took a knee to take a stand against the injustice against African Americans across the United States. On September 1st, 2016, Colin Kaepernick took a knee with his teammate Eric Reid and started a firestorm of heated debates and exposed a sharp divide in American culture. Although his protest created an aggressive polarity in NFL fans, he undeniably brought even more attention to the controversial issue of police brutality targeted at African American men across the US. His impact grew even more with his Nike commercial with the line “believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything”. This ad furthered the conversation of police brutality on a national scale and many NFL players have taken notice. That despite many players across the history of the league haven’t been as outspoken as athletes of other sports, they can still make an impact in culture aside from just their play.

Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens was a track star at Ohio State, and set many NCAA records, and quickly became a star athlete on the American Olympics team. In the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany Owens had a historical record setting olympic games. He won gold in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump, but most importantly, he did it in front of Adolf Hitler. Hitler, who’s racist rhetoric claimed that the Aryan race was genetically similar in every way to every other race, received a cold metaphorical slap in the face by the performance of Owens. In a now-famous quote, Owens recalled Hitler’s reaction to his performance, “Hitler had a certain time to come to the stadium and a certain time to leave. It happened he had to leave before the victory ceremony after the 100 meters”. Owens’ is known for his incredible impact on not only racism in America, but for defying the most infamous and evil man in history. He is probably the most world renowned athletes, not only for his achievements on the track, but also his impact in society.

Inspiration. It’s what truly keeps us going and what helps us garner interest in life, as well as giving us hope for the future. In the NFL, it’s easy to find sources of inspiration through both the stories of players, coaches and the teams. Oftentimes in my high school career, I would be so close to quitting that I’d have my coach’s number dialed, ready to call him and tell him I’m done. But then I would be reminded of players in college and the NFL who have it much worse than I do, yet they pulled through and achieved their dreams.

One of the greatest stories of any NFL player of all time is Shaquem Griffin. On July 20, 1995, Shaquem and his twin brother Shaquill were born. Shaquem was born with an incredibly rare defect known as amniotic band syndrome, causing the fingers of his left hand to be significantly underdeveloped. At the age of 4, Shaquem’s mother caught him trying to cut off his hand with a butcher knife, the pain was so excruciating that the family had no choice but to opt for Shaquem to get an amputation. However, this did not stop him from participating equally as well as his brother in almost every sport they played together. He was a three-sport athlete in high school. However, when college recruits came around, they were seemingly only interested in his brother. The process was extremely tough for Shaquem, who despite being on the same level of talent and athleticism as his brother, schools were hesitant to offer him anything. His brother stuck by his side, and the twins both committed to UCF.

At UCF his brother shined, and Shaquem was left by the wayside in which he was nothing but a practice squad player who rarely, if ever, got a look in the first team. However, the school’s new coach Scott Frost, who was hired to turn around the forgettable UCF team, and started by promoting Shaquem to 1st string. Shaquem exploded onto the college football scene, and as UCF went from perennial failures to an undefeated season, Shaquem was at the forefront and one of the most important leaders on the team and was named as the defensive MVP in UCF’s visit to the Peach Bowl.

Despite the fact that many thought he was not NFL material due to his disability, he was invited to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis in which he shocked everyone by running the fastest 40 yard dash time for a linebacker in NFL history, 4.38 seconds. He also put up 20 reps of the bench press, which is set at 225 pounds, with only one hand. With a stunning day a the combine, Shaquem was the biggest story heading into the draft for all the right reasons. He was beloved by the media and received praise from a lot of major athletes all over the world.

After the combine came draft day. Shaquem had to wait until the 5th round, where he was taken with the 141st pick by the Seattle Seahawks. Not only did Shaquem achieve his but he was also he was reunited with his brother along the way. His whole life, Shaquem never used his disability as an excuse, but instead as a motivation to work harder than anyone else in order to get where he wanted to be in life. He approached everything in life head-on, and did things people never thought was possible.

 

Ryan Fitzpatrick is an enigma.

 

There’s no simpler way to put it, the man is impossible to figure out. Is he a good quarterback, or is he nothing more than a journeyman backup? Watching him on the Jets for his 30 touchdown year was bittersweet, knowing that eventually, it would all come crashing down. Seemingly as soon as he gets put under even a little bit of pressure, he collapses. Once someone expects something from him, he falls apart – throwing more interceptions than touchdowns, and looking like the polar opposite of his storied performances.

 

Fitzpatrick attended Harvard University where he was the first quarterback in school history to rush for 1000 yards, he was also named Ivy League player of the year in 2004 and was subsequently named to the First Team All-Ivy League the same year. Before the draft, Fitzpatrick scored an almost perfect 48 on the Wonderlic test in 9 minutes, the Wonderlic test is a test administered to all players in which they have 12 minutes to answer 50 questions, this is currently the highest score recorded by any starting NFL quarterback.

Since he was drafted in the 7th round by the St. Louis Rams (now Los Angeles Rams), he has played for 7 different teams, but the hype behind him began on his storied debut against the Houston Texans on November 27, 2005. Fitzpatrick led the team from a 24-3 deficit to a 33-27 overtime win and was one of the only 7 quarterbacks to pass for 300 yards in their debut.

 

Since his storied debut, Fitzpatrick has been a backup and starter on 7 different teams. Often coming back into the spotlight after an injury to the first string. Fitzpatrick continued his trend of absolute dominance to absolute failure as he continued his cycle of backup to starter and vice versa. But his time with the Jets, where he started the entire year and was a shock to everyone as he led the team to a 10-6 record, and earned himself the starting job for next year. Hopes were high for the now dubbed Fitzmagic, and he absolutely capitulated. Against the Kansas City Chiefs during week 3 he threw 6 interceptions, and the next game the Jets relegated him back to backup.

Fitzmagic to Fitztragic, a seemingly endless cycle in which Ryan Fitzpatrick goes from the top of the league right back down to the bottom. In the first 3 weeks of the 2018 NFL season, Fitz looked like a new man. Throwing for 400 yards in all 3 of his first starts and 11 touchdowns, he seemed on top of the world. But in true Fitztragic fashion, it all came crashing down when he was destroyed by the Chicago Bears and benched in favor of Jameis Winston.

 

Fitzpatrick’s story is truly a cycle of excellence to failure, and he is truly the most inconsistent player in NFL history. The perennial journeyman backup, who got benched the same week his jersey was forever hung up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is a man of mystery. He will forever frustrate NFL head coaches for the rest of his already long career and is a walking talking QB controversy.