Is the Madden Curse Real?
After every Super Bowl year, EA Sports takes the time to put together a new NFL Madden game. Everyone is always so excited to see what the new areas of the game are, what both has and hasn’t changed, but especially who is going to appear on the cover of the new game. As excited about the release that both NFL fans and gamers get, there is a conspiracy that always follows the release of each game, the player that makes the cover of each one of these games ends up out or has a massive decline is plays for the following season with some sort of injury that puts their legacy career on hold.
The Madden Curse speaks to a fair amount of these NFL stars who have been on the cover of the Madden video games. The Madden games originally started being released in 1988 but didn’t start adding players to the cover until 1999. In total, there have been a total of 26 players who have appeared since they first started putting players on the covers since then and each one of them has suffered within their career. Certain players on the other hand have been able to escape, mostly the quarterbacks.
The first one who suffered this longing curse was Garrison Hearst who played for the 49ers at the time and was the first one to make the cover for the Madden games in 1999. However, it was only sold in certain regions so it was not really within the United States but the Madden game did sell for the PlayStation. The following year after that game’s release, he suffered a broken ankle in the playoff game between the 49ers and the Falcons. Following that, Barry Sanders and John Madden made the cover the following year but unexpectedly retired. Eddie George in 2001 suffered a decline in his career after a 1,500-run career season previously but every play after that he could not carry the ball for 3.4 yards or more. Daunte Culpepper for 2002, suffered a season-ending career injury, and Marshall Faulk, the 2003 cover athlete suffered an ankle injury. However, it is noticed that many of these players have been running backs who have suffered these injuries. In 2024, Christian McCaffrey made the Madden 25 cover and it all came crashing down for him the following season when he went out with a calf injury for most of the season.
There are very few quarterbacks who have gotten hurt after being on the Madden cover. Brett Favre was in 2009 with a shoulder injury and retired. Micheal Vick for 2004 the former quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons broke his fibula. Most of these quarterbacks have suffered downfalls in their careers.
The others escaped the injury side of it. Yet, their season just vanished right in front of their faces. These quarterbacks such as Drew Brees who was on the cover in 2011 and only lost in the playoffs to the Seahawks who were 7-9 at the time becoming the biggest upset of the season. Patrick Mahomes was on the cover twice in both 2020 and 2022. Their season tanked when he went out with injury in 2020 and lost to the Bengals in 2022. Josh Allen made the cover in 2024 and also escaped but they suffered from losses. Their careers just fell out of touch.
These are all just to name a few that have suffered. There have been many more who have suffered from broken ankles, and injured quads, it’s become a conspiracy and or a jinx that many people in today's world question. A lot of fans are against who goes on the cover next because they don’t want to see a decline in their favorite players. Or even see them disappear for extended periods of time during the NFL season.
EA Sports, the creators of the game have publically come out and said that there is no such thing as the curse. However, if you look back on almost all of these years of Madden game releases, there are multiple players who have gone out or suffered from being placed on the cover of this video game. It’s been ongoing for years and there is no way to tell which way it is going to go. There are a lot of decisions made as to who goes on the cover. Many believe in it, while others have stayed quiet about it.
The only year that the NFL got away with not having any talks about the curse was the year that John Madden passed away in 2021. He was honored on the cover of Madden 23 when it was released in 2022. He passed before it ever got released before that, there were talks about who was going to land on the cover. EA felt it was right to place him there after his death.
The curse seems to have died down by the late 2000s but it may be making a comeback. They are still trying to decide who is going to make the cover for 2025 Madden. Whether the curse is real or not, no one knows but looking back on everything it just seems to be how things go. Fans and gamers can choose whether they believe or not but that is exactly what has been happening over the last 26 years.
