Team Curse

Prior to 1999, every annual installment of the Madden NFL series primarily featured John Madden on its cover.
When asked about the “Madden Curse”, Chris Erb, the EA Sports director of marketing, commented, “I don't know that we believe in the curse. The players don't believe in the curse.”

Players who have appeared on the cover in subsequent years have generally failed to reproduce their success of the previous years.

In total, the 10 cover players since 1999 had a total of 39 Pro Bowl appearances prior to their Madden cover appearances,

• 1998: Garrison Hearst was the first player to ever be featured on a Madden cover, appearing on Madden NFL 99. Hearst's 1998 season was the best of his career, rushing for 1,570 yards and seven touchdowns. He led the San Francisco 49ers to the playoffs and a wild card win over the Green Bay Packers, but on the first play of the divisional game versus the Atlanta Falcons, he suffered a bad ankle break and his team would go on to lose the game. He did not play again until 2001.
• 2001: Eddie George, then of the Tennessee Titans, is the next player who graced the Madden NFL 2001 box. Following his appearance on the cover, he averaged only 3 yards per carry and rushed for career lows of 939 yards and 5 touchdowns due to a nagging toe injury that bothered him the entire season. For the rest of his career, he never averaged more than 3.4 yards per carry.
• 2002: Former Minnesota Vikings star quarterback Daunte Culpepper appeared on the Madden NFL 2002 cover after throwing for nearly 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns while rushing for 470 yards and 7 more scores in the 2000 season. However, Culpepper struggled with turnovers in the first 11 games of the 2001 season, throwing 13 interceptions and only 14 touchdown passes. A back injury ended his season in the 11th game.
• 2003: Running back Marshall Faulk of the St. Louis Rams, who was on the Madden NFL 2003 cover, suffered an ankle injury, missing five games. He did amass nearly 1,600 total yards and 10 touchdowns in limited time in 2002; however, it was a steep decline from his 2,000 yard and 21 touchdown campaign of 2001. He never broke through the 1,000 yards rushing mark for the rest of his career.
• 2004: Five days after Madden NFL 2004 was released, which featured Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick on the cover, he was injured during a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens, suffering a fractured right fibula. Vick played in only the last 5 regular season games, finishing with just 585 yards passing and 4 touchdowns.
• 2005:  Madden NFL 2005 featured Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens, the first defensive player ever to appear on the cover of a Madden game. It was Lewis' first season without a single interception, after posting a career-high 6 the previous year. Lewis suffered a serious hand injury during the final game of the regular season.
• 2006:  During the 2005-2006 season, Donovan McNabb suffered a sports hernia, but elected to play until after the November 14th game with the Dallas Cowboys. During this game, McNabb was knocked down after an interception return by Roy Williams, aggravating the injury. He then had to have a season-ending surgery that was required to repair the injury.
• 2007:  Shaun Alexander, who had missed one start in his previous 64 contests, fractured the 4th metatarsal in his foot after he was on the cover. He missed six starts and failed to rush for 1,000 yards for the first time since 2000.
• 2008:  Vince Young injured his quadriceps during a matchup against Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week 6 of the 2007 NFL season. Young missed the following weeks matchup against Houston Texans, but started the next week against the Oakland Raiders.
• 2009: After an 8-3 start, Favre would injure his biceps and the Jets would lose three straight games against teams without a winning record: San Fransisco, Seattle and Denver.

Madden NFL. (2009, January 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:09, January 17, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Madden_NFL&oldid=264584063