Madden curse put to the test this season

There's going to have to be some MAJOR VOODOO this season for the Curse to maintain its legacy.

On one hand, we have the NFL's Iron Man with over 253 consecutive starts. And that's NOT counting all the playoff games. Think about that...Favre has started/played in every game since Sept. 27, 1992! An amazing feat. I'm sure he'll be fine. "Fine from what?" you ask? The Curse.

You see, on the other hand, we have the infamous "Madden Curse". For those of you who don't know the mystique of the Curse, allow me to elaborate for a second.

Since it's inception in 1989, the Madden Football game had always been graced with the goofy smiling face of John Madden. That is, until the year 2000. This is when the Madden franchise decided to use actual NFL players to market their game. The player is posed in some sort of "action pose", and is chosen based on his performance from the prior year. Not necessarily the MVP, but of the same caliber. Unfortunately, these cover boys didn't fare too well in the end.

In 2000, the players who were "lucky" enough to appear on a major video game cover were pretty stoked (I'm sure). Hell, it seems like 1/2 of the NFL players actually PLAY Madden! Who wouldn't like playing a game where you could play as yourself and dominate the competition?! That's probably a major reason why Madden now allows it's players to create a player and customize it to look like the gamer! Pretty cool. Anyway, I'm not here to review the game. You can do that for yourself. Back to the Curse.

Here are a list of players who have appeared on the cover, and how they fared:

(NOTE: the Madden NFL 2002 would refer to the version of Madden NFL released just prior to the start of the 2001-2002 NFL season, etc.)

2000: Barry Sanders (RB) - Detroit Lions: (didn't play a down and retired out of the blue)

2000: Dorsey Levens (RB) - Green Bay Packers: Madden had to quickly change covers so they chose Levens who played pretty well, was nagged by a knee-injury all season. He was released in 2001.

2001: Eddie George (RB) - Tennessee Titans: Wow, really?! I'd forgotten about him. Despite a really good season (stat wise), George was responsible for bobbling a pass that was intercepted and returned for a TD in a season-ending Divisional game against Baltimore. Oops! The next season he watched his rushing yards plummet to an all-time low and was hampered by injuries.

Starting to see a trend here?

2002: Daunte Culpepper (QB) - Minnesota Vikings: Coming off of an impressive year, Culpepper "led" his team to a 4-7 season before he took a whack in the knee and missed the last 5 games. You have to agree, he's never been the same since.

2003: Marshall Faulk (RB) - St Louis Rams: Stud! He helped lead his team to the Super Bowl 2 out of the last 3 years. But, alas, he was plagued by an ankle injury in 2002 (of course he did). He couldn't get 1000 yards this year, and the Rams dropped to 7-9.

2004: Michael Vick (QB) - Atlanta Falcons: Michael, Michael. The famous dog lover. So much natural talent and such a disappointment. Took his 13-32 Falcons (2 seasons before 2002) to the Playoffs. But, (yeah, you guessed it) suffered a fractured right fibula in pre-season (1 DAY AFTER MADDEN 2004 HIT THE SHELVES!!!) . He played only 5 games and Falcons sank to 5-11.

2005: Ray Lewis (LB) - Baltimore Ravens: Probably one of the best selling Maddens (in my opinion) because they had the Collector's Edition. And it introduced some new features. Lewis had career high numbers the previous season in interceptions and helped lead his team to the playoffs for 3rd straight season. But '04 wasn't Ray's year (and pretty much his only bad season). He didn't get 1 interception and missed the last game of the season with an owie. And in '06, he suffered a torn hamstring and missed the last 10 games, and the Ravens sucked.

I'm telling you, it's for real...

2006: Donovan McNabb (QB) - Philadelphia Eagles: Do I even need to talk about his injuries?! Coming off of 5 straight Playoff appearances, an NFC Championship & a Super Bowl appearance, he was locked and loaded with a 59-21 record. McNabb was selected for the Madden cover and just HAD to say something about the curse: "might be a trend, but I don't believe in the curse at all". Dummy. He got a sports hernia in the 1st game, opted for surgery & missed the last 7 games. Eagles finished last in NFC East. Lesson learned = Don't mock the curse!

2007: Shaun Alexander (RB) - Seattle Seahawks: Yet another awesome season that was followed by disappointment after the Madden appearance. Even made it to the franchise's 1st Super Bowl appearance. Sadly, 3 weeks into the '06 season Alexander broke his left foot and missed the next 6 games. He CLEARLY isn't the same player. In fact, he wasn't picked up by ANY team in this '08 off-season.

2008: Vince Young (QB) - Tennessee Titans: Hurt his quad in 5th game and missed the following game. Insignificant you say? Well considering that he never missed a game since middle school leading up to this event...I'd say that's a big deal!

2009: Brett Favre (QB) - NY Jets: First off, it pains me to say "Jets", as I am a raging Packers fan. But whether reality or ridiculous superstition, if an injury is going to occur (and it's GOING to occur) then I'd rather it NOT be while he's with the Pack! The Iron Man of the NFL will be putting the Curse to the ultimate test this season. While I don't wish anything bad to happen to the Legend of Lambeau, I'm VERY curious to see how this season unfolds for Favre. Not with stats, but whether or not he'll go out with injury.

Now, I know the Curse is just a "coincidence" to most of you, but let me say this. YES it's superstitious. YES it's probably just "bad luck". YES it's probably based more on the fact that these players who are selected to be on the cover are coming off of pinnacle performances of their career, and anything less the following season is viewed as "curse related". All these things are viable counter arguments to the "curse". But I'm a believer... And after this season, perhaps you all will be too!

Crackberrys Kill

Soooo, things have gone well with my new Blackberry (BB) Curve 8330. Gone well if you are asking me. Turned into a borderline addiction, should you ask my wife. She often wants to go "intervention style" on me when I am thumbing away on Sunday at her parents house.

So yeah. Things have been going so well, in fact, that I even had a dream about it! But I don't have a problem. Yeah, so what?! Hell, I can quit whenever I want!

For everyone who's "into" their berries, you understand it's potential. You empathize with those who share your passion. You know what it's like to walk out of the house only to realize you left your BB unattended in the house...all alone, unused. It's an empty, helpless feeling.

What I love about the BB is the ability to add 3rd party software. It was the biggest reason I was drawn away from the iPhone. Well, that and switching service subscribers. Now I'm glad I went with the BB. Here's a list of all the software I have downloaded thus far:

• Opera Mini (browser)
• Empower Email (must have for email, full images, active links)
  
• Fusion Voicemail Plus (visual voicemail)
  
• iBerry phone theme (awesome...looks just like the iPhone interface)
• BlackBerry Messenger (great IM service BB-to-BB)
• Viigo beta (RSS reader, news, weather, sports, etc)
• Tellme (voice activated web search)
• Vlingo (voice activated web search...I'm testing both)
• Facebook app
• ESPN news feeder
• JabpLite (mobile checkbook app)
• Google Maps
• BlackBerry Wallet (stores passwords, credit card info, etc)

These applications are just some of the many, many that exist out there for BB owners. Most (all but iBerry & Empower) are completely free! Talk about f'n sweet!

Never again will I get stuck somewhere with nothing to do. I just pull out the BB and look @ Google Maps to see my location in satellite view. Or maybe check the scores quickly (before the wife sees) using the ESPN gadget. Most likely, I'm reading email & checking my Viigo RSS feeds (that's right, RSS feeds directly to your phone!) to check the blogs of my friends on Troopspace, Blogger, etc.

And if you haven't checked out Opera Mini yet, you're missing out. It's so much "more gooder" than the BB default browser. It's a FULL web browser experience. Meaning? You get headers, banners, images...all like you would if you were on your desktop PC viewing the sites. There is no scaled down mobile feel using Opera Mini.

At the Start Page, you can enter 10 sites and quickly jump to any of them. When you launch to a webpage, the browser scales down the screen size so that you see the whole page. Then by clicking on an area (highlighted within a framed section), you can zoom in. Now you see the section and scroll up/down, left/right in order to view the page. Or, you can scale it to "Column View" so you eliminate the left/right scrolling.

Well there you have it. Ever since I've laid my hands on this one, I can't get enough. Check out some of the software I mentioned. I'm sure you'll like it. The Empower email even offers a 30-day free trial. Nothing to lose there. Take care, I gotta run. Think my BB is calling for me.

freakin' out about state layoffs!

Christ, I'm SO BORED!

I f'n HATE budget bullshit. Wha', you ask?! I'm referring to the delight of working in government. There's always politicians looking to cut our budget for some reason. And in doing so, there are tons of pitfalls.

Besides sitting here @ my desk & being completely bored out of my f'n skull, there's the threat of layoffs, facility closings, furlough days (meaning unpaid "vacation" day), compressed work weeks (5 days down to 4, but with longer hours) and my favorite...travel restrictions.


You see, I normally travel with my job because I'm a trainer. So I zip all across this great state training employees in DMV facilities. Yes, I said DMV, calm down. I know all the stereotypes: long lines, rude staff, tons of paperwork. You do know we have a special training course on how to take the worst possible photo of you, don't you?! How else do you think we catch you with your eyes closed or with your mouth open looking like a stoner?! It's a skill. lol, kidding.

Anyway, I've been "grounded" (for a lack of a better word) because of the $25+ million cut out of our budget this year. We spent like $700K in travel last year. This year we received something like $80K. Seriously! So now unless I have something specific to do @ another location, I'm having to stay put. Talk about a chicken in the pen!

Who am I kidding. It could be MUCH worse. I have a computer, I am in an air conditioned office, and I have A JOB! Can't complain much in this recession...er, "difficult time", I mean. We're not "IN" a recession, remember? Right. Just like the sky isn't blue and water isn't wet. Just remember, a politician determined that we're not in a recession, just the same as they "balanced our budget" in my state. Cut our budget, but try to acquire $100 million to "repair" the state capitol area. Sounds legit to me!