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!