I’m not a big believer in curses. Well unless you exclude the Chicago Cubs franchise, they are definitely cursed. Eventhough, there is a strange occurance that nearly every year since madden has been taken off the cover. Before 1999, every edition of the Madden Series fetaured his fatness John Madden on the cover, Boom! In an apparent marketing move, EA put Garrison Hearst on the cover of the game. Since then every year has been followed by one of the NFL’s top players, and since then nearly all have either been severely injured for that year or played piss poor.

Michael Vick – Madden 2004 – leg injury sidelined most of season
Shaun Alexander – Madden 2007 – Goes from MVP to injured foot and a backup
Garrison Hearst – Madden 1999 – Suffers broken ankle in divisional playoff
Daunte Culpepper – Madden 2002 – Missed 4 games, led Minnesota to worst record since 84
Donovan Mcnabb – Madden 2006 – Suffered hernia gone for the season
Brett Favre – Madden 2009 – Started off strong then injured his throwing arm along with the Jets shot at the playoffs

Now, there are more comparisons draw to players that just played poorly after being on the cover. Eddie George, Vince Young, Ray Lewis, Marshall Faulk, Barry Sanders.

It looks like EA has decided to do something a little different this time around. With Polamalu, and Fitzgerald on this years edition. They can’t both get hurt can they? Even Chris Erb the marketing director for the game says ” I’ve got a bottle of champagne in my office that we’re ready to pop once someone breaks the curse.” Dare to dream Chris Erb, Dare to Dream.

Madden 10 was released Thursday evening, Curse countdown has begun for Steelers, and Cardinal fans