The Madden Curse: Believe It!

A few years back, I watched a segment on ESPN that discussed a possible “Madden curse.” This segment suggested that there was a curse on the NFL player who appeared on the cover of the popular John Madden NFL video game series. According to the curse, this cover-athlete would run into misfortune in the form of an injury or poor performance in the following season. To this day, I can still remember watching the piece and thinking “that has got to be the most absurd thing I have ever heard. A curse from a video game!? ” Well, approaching the 2007 season, the “curse” was batting 1.000. That’s right, a perfect five for five. Dating back to 2001, the curse has previously plagued the seasons of such stars as Eddie George, Dante Culpepper, Marshall Faulk, Ray Lewis, and most recently, Donovan McNabb.