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.
I find this blog post to be very interesting. I had not known about this curse before reading this post, but now that I know about it I can’t help, but believe it. They say sports are 10% physical and 90% mental, so if a player who knows about the curse is chosen to star on the cover of madden he might mentally sabotage himself, which are how most curses continue.
~Samantha Grecco