{"id":8596550,"date":"2022-09-05T08:57:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T15:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com?p=8596550&preview_id=8596550"},"modified":"2022-09-05T10:07:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T17:07:49","slug":"curses-was-there-ever-really-a-madden-curse-and-if-there-was-is-it-finally-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eastbaytimes.com\/2022\/09\/05\/curses-was-there-ever-really-a-madden-curse-and-if-there-was-is-it-finally-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Curses: Was there ever really a Madden Curse \u2026 and if there was, is it finally over?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a parade through Chicago when the Cubs finally kicked their Billy Goat Curse. All of Red Sox nation celebrated when Boston reversed the Curse of the Bambino.<\/p>\n

Is it possible the Madden Curse \u2014 not nearly as old as its baseball counterparts but perhaps more entrenched in pop culture \u2014 also has ended, and we never even realized it?<\/p>\n

Or is more heartbreak lurking, just another bad break and a season or two away?<\/p>\n

The Madden NFL video game franchise is one of the most successful in the world. Redwood City-based EA Sports has sold around 150 million copies of a game credited with teaching legions of fans \u2013 and many current NFL players and coaches \u2013 the nuances of football because of its realistic style of play.<\/p>\n

\"ORG
ORG XMIT: NYET319 This undated photo provided by Electronic Arts shows a screen from the Nintendo DS game \u2018Madden NFL 2205.\u2019 Known for its true-to-life football emulation, \u2018Madden\u2019 takes advantage of the handheld device\u2019s dual screen technology by eliminating screen-shifting between drives in order to pick your plays. (AP Photo\/Electronic Arts) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just as notable has been the decades-long enigma known as the Madden Curse.<\/p>\n

Not familiar? Simply put, it\u2019s the explanation often suggested for the terrible injuries or abrupt declines in performance that have followed an inordinate number of players who have graced the cover of the Madden NFL game over the past 25 years.<\/p>\n

The instances have become less frequent in recent years, largely because Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, the cover players for three of the past five editions, appear to be curse resistant. And there will be no curse this season: John Madden, the former Raiders head coach, legendary broadcaster and driving force for the video game, is back on the cover for the first time since 1998, a tribute after his death in December at the age of 85.<\/p>\n

But historically, trouble has soon followed for the Madden cover boys.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan
Jordan Rutchena, 6, of Danville, looks at his new Madden NFL 12 video game, autographed by former San Francisco 49er Roger Craig, during a promotional event for the game at the Safeway grocery store in San Ramon, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011. Madden NFL 12, made by game developer EA Sports, is available at the Blockbuster Express DVD machine located at the Safeway store. (Doug Duran\/Staff) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Debates rage about which players actually have been cursed, but an argument can be made that 16 of the 24 players who have been featured on the cover got hurt, saw their performance drop off dramatically or suffered some sort of massive in-season or playoff letdown that season. That doesn\u2019t even account for Barry Sanders, who made the cover in 1999 and shortly before that season even began, stunned the NFL by retiring while still in his prime and never played again.<\/p>\n

Technically, the Madden Curse isn\u2019t a curse in the fairytale \u2014 or horror movie \u2014 sense. But a lot of fans believe something is, or was, going on. When game producers opened up the cover slot to a fan vote, fans didn\u2019t vote for their own team\u2019s stars, they voted for their rivals, hoping for a foe\u2019s downfall by the curse.<\/p>\n

Players have publicly put on a brave face, with mixed results.<\/p>\n

Brady tempted fate when he was named the cover player for Madden 18, filming a tongue-in-cheek commercial where he walked under a ladder and broke a mirror. Brady not only avoided injury, but was the league MVP that cover season. His Patriots, however, were upset by the Eagles in the 2018 Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Former Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander, asked about the Madden Curse when he was picked for the front of the \u201907 game, replied, \u201cDo you want to be hurt and on the cover or just hurt?\u201d Alexander broke his foot weeks after his cover debuted and was out of the league two years later at age 31.<\/p>\n

\"ORG
ORG XMIT: BW17 Electronic Arts announced today that NFL MVP and NFC Champion running back Shaun Alexander will appear on the cover of Madden NFL 07, the newest iteration of the EA SPORTS(TM) best-selling football franchise with the official videogame license of the NFL and its players. (Photo: Business Wire) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Publicly, only one player has declined a cover opportunity \u2013 then-Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson for the \u201908 cover, but reportedly, that was over how much he\u2019d be paid.<\/p>\n

But players talk. And they\u2019ve seen what has happened to so many of their colleagues.<\/p>\n

Peyton Manning, one of the NFL\u2019s greatest quarterbacks, who retired in 2016 after winning Super Bowl 50, devoted an episode of his ESPN+ series \u201cPeyton\u2019s Places\u201d to the Madden Curse.<\/p>\n

Manning somewhat surprisingly never made a Madden NFL cover and conceded, \u201cI\u2019m a little hurt that I was never asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

But would he have agreed?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe answer is absolutely not,\u201d Manning continued. \u201cNo. Freaking. Chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, Manning and Garrison Hearst, the episode guest who posed the question, burst out laughing on the set.<\/p>\n

Hearst, the former 49ers star running back, knows a little about the topic. To many, he was patient zero of the Madden Curse.<\/p>\n

During the 1998 season, Hearst became the first player ever featured on a Madden NFL cover, but broke his ankle shortly after the game was released and missed the next two seasons.<\/p>\n

\"San
San Francisco 49ers running back Garrison Hearst sits on the bench in the fourth quarter with a broken leg during their divisional playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday, Jan. 9, 1999 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. At right is Ken Norton Jr. (51). Hearst broke his leg on the first play of their 20-18 loss to the Falcons. The Falcons advance to their first NFC championship game next weekend to meet either Minnesota or Arizona. (AP Photo\/Dave Martin) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hearst developed avascular necrosis, the same condition that ended the career of Bo Jackson, who was the biggest name in professional sports \u2014 and virtually unstoppable as the star of a rival football video game \u2014 when he got hurt. But as Manning noted to Hearst, there\u2019s no such thing as a Tecmo Bowl Curse.<\/p>\n

Only Madden.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until several years following Hearst\u2019s injury \u2013 after cover stars Eddie George, Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk and Michael Vick were struck down in succession in the early 2000s \u2013 that the legend of the Madden Curse began to really take hold. The concept didn\u2019t even have a name until Alyssa Roenigk coined the phrase in a 2002 ESPN The Magazine article.<\/p>\n

By 2012, after Donovan McNabb, Alexander, Vince Young, Troy Polamalu and even Brett Favre and Drew Brees (to some extent) also suffered misfortunes after making the cover, the Madden Curse was part of NFL lore.<\/p>\n

So, does Hearst believe in a Madden Curse?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to, because that means I\u2019m the first one to start it,\u201d Hearst told Manning. \u201cBut something\u2019s going on. Look where I am, on ESPN+ (talking about it).\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, not everyone buys into the curse talk, including the guy whose name has been on the box of every Madden NFL game ever sold and whose likeness was splashed across the first eight editions of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on the cover for several years, and I never once even pulled a hamstring,\u201d Madden once said. \u201cIt\u2019s a violent sport. Injuries are going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Berkeley,
Berkeley, CA July 26, 1980 \u2013 Former NFL coach John Madden gives advice at UC Berkeley. (Robert Stinnett \/ Oakland Tribune Staff Archives) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EA Sports\u2019 public stance was if the players didn\u2019t think there was a curse, neither did they. But in 2010, the company reportedly began developing a comedy film based around a former star player who abruptly comes out of retirement at the same time he is on the cover of a popular video game and has to endure a series of setbacks \u2013 not unlike how Favre\u2019s 2008 season unfolded.<\/p>\n

In 2007, as the Madden Curse was really picking up steam, former EA Sports marketing director Christopher Erb conceded to Time Magazine, \u201cI haven\u2019t told this to people, but I\u2019ve got a bottle of Champagne in my office that we\u2019re ready to pop once someone breaks the curse.\u201d<\/p>\n