taomaster99

MURDERFACE

Budkin

eastx

Exactly. That is most likely the main reason for the "curse". If you've had a good-enough season to be considered for the cover, your season was so good that the next season will very likely look mediocre in comparison.

L_K_M

bugashi

@uvadave:
Ah, but then you need to start grouping players by skill level in addition to which position they play. First-string players will be on the field more than third-string, and thus should bear a greater likelihood of getting injured that someone who spends most of the season making sure the bench doesn't wander off. Players who are up for a Madden cover shoot are pretty much limited to the first-string group, so you'd need to pare down the stats to just that group by position played.

@Fluffy22:
You do realize that football, soccer, and rugby all grew out of the same sport, right? And that all three kinda suck donkey balls in equal measure, right? And WTF is "fotball" anyways?

@RetroBob:
Soccer is a game where you run around a lot, try not to even touch each other, and try to kick a little round ball into a net.
Rugby is a game where you run around a lot, make a point of roughing each other up a bit, and try to get an oblong ball over a goal line.
Football is unarmed combat, with nominal amounts of armor, where you try to put the other guys in the hospital. Oh, and also to get an oblong ball over a goal line. But mostly to put the other guys in the hospital.

Seriously, if you compare the size and stature of a soccer player, a rugby player, and a football player, the football player, depending on what position he plays (most especially if he's a linebacker) is probably at least as tall as the rugby player...if he was standing on the soccer player, and probabably weighs as much as the two of them combined. If I had to take a hit from a player from any one of the three sports, I'd probably pick the soccer player first, the football kicker second, the rugby player third, and go find something dangerous to defend myself with if I'm stuck with a non-kicker football player.

Purple Dave

IT'S REAL !

sexyj

reywing

Thrillhaus

Dr Mario

Irenicus-the one and only

Loads of ways to argue either way, but saying its a curse is not one of them. Id go with the players not being able to maintain the high level of play for back to back years. The Ray lewis one was funny, as was the culpepper one. I mean, how could any sane person look at thier stats and not see that the seasons were horrible relative to the prior ones?

RuneX

I also find it very selective of you to say that a number of players rebounded while ignoring the fact that some of the same players were essentially maimed in later seasons.

As I see it here is the breakdown:

Sanders - He retired, no will to play ever again. THUMBS DOWN
Vick - yeah, we get it... THUMBS DOWN
Lewis - He had a bad year, but much like ripken kept getting voted into the allstar game gets a pass. He has also missed games in every year since his cover. THUMBS DOWN
Levens - he had a great year, but was hurt for 2 games, and never did anything after that - 400 Yards was his best effort after that. THUMBS UP?????
Hearst - He had a fine season then BROKE HIS LEG - then staph infections caused him to miss 2 full years in his prime THUMBS UP??????
Culpepper - To use yards as an argument is a horrible one, Using that logic Vinny Testaverde is the 3rd best QB in the history of the game. He has been Hurt and innefective since the cover spot. THUMBS DOWN
Faulk - He only started 10 games that year - that is what you call hurt - the team stunk out loud and he never played a full season again. THUMBS DOWN
George - Passes muster THUMBS UP.
McNabb - Hurt that year - hasn't finished a complete season since. THUMBS DOWN
Alexander - Injured the past two years - outplayed by Maurice Morris when he did play. THUMBS DOWN
Young - It is too early, but he did miss time. For now THUMBS UP

By my count that is 4 up and 7 down. That is a 63% Suck Rate. 13% worse than your inflated injury stat. (they look at the injury report stats, not the missed game stats in your sited article) 50% of the players show up on the injury report - Most still play, but at least the gamblers know who is a bit hurt.

Levens and Hearst pretty much stunk after their cover season, suffering some of the most severe injuries ever. VY gets a freebee - Leaving you with only Eddie George as the only scot-free Guy.

Looks to me like the curse lives.

rutkap

PurpleMonkey

King Seafoam

Madden Curse, Sports Illustrated Curse -- whatever. It's all for fun, just a running gag of sports.

Except the Cubs curse. That one's real.

Evil Tortie's Mom

DemonBlood

It's just a harmless joke. Stop taking it so seriously.

And let me point out a fact:
To get onto the Cover, you have to have had a fantastic year-Be one one of the top 5 or so players of the previous season.
What are the odds of topping one of the greatest seasons ever? It's like breaking a a world record, and then being expected to break your old one just because you did it once.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

yonderTheGreat

Yeah, because why not get paid your wage, plus royalties, but not actually have to do any of the hard work.

That's just common sense.

Anaardvark

Brackynews

Merus

They had to resort to putting Vince Young on the cover, for crying out loud! If they really had their pick of the litter, they'd have put Brady or Manning or 50 other, better players. No LT? Pssh.

Curse is real, folks. Just admit it!! :P

Huckleberry

GodzillaVsJapan

Akanubon

commandercacho

That is an entirely inappropriate thing to say on a video game website. I'm very offended. If you want to talk about sexual fetishes, do it somewhere else. We don't come here to see sickos talk about putting things inside of the editors.

WalletMan

L_K_M

soulja-boy

I was hoping Vince would be the one to do it....maybe they shouldve put Tom Brady on the cover after all.

Jmontilla2786

captronj

no doubt

sexyj

hunter8man

Blake Snow

coladict

DemonBlood

Nice read though. And GO PATS!

L-RAC

Gravity in Mario Galaxy
Hammer space
Gran Turismo cars and their real world counterparts
and finally
Madden stars and their real world counterparts

Man I love that show, thanks for gettin' my hopes up Mr. Plunkett.

Ptolemy

ExplodingKayNine

Being a Vikings fan, Dante Culpepper stood out.

Sure he threw for 3400+ yards in 2002, 2003, and 2004. But in 2002, he also threw 23 Interceptions and only 18 Touchdown passes with a whopping 75 QB rating. Garbage. His only marginally good year was 2004, then he gets horribly injured in 2005, and is done.

You can play this game with each player, it's not hard. This can be spun either direction. Just happens to be in the positive spin for this article, because it's written by someone from EA, to promote athletes being on the cover without fear.

jynxycat

DemonBlood

It uses selective stats to prove it's point.

Being a Vikings fan, I can say that 2002 was a horrible year for Culpepper, despite "throwing for 3400+ yards"

That's great!

But he also only threw for 18 TD passes, and 23 interceptions.

Not so great.

If you go down the list, you can add your own spin either way to each player. Just happens to be a positive spin because it's from EA.

jynxycat

Just shows you what a dangerous game football is.

InsidiousTuna

WalletMan

RetroBob

ex: "Well Al, when you get touchdowns you put points on the board. And whoever puts up the most points wins the game."

Thanks for the insight John.

--

No offense, but Madden was actually a very good head coach. Owns a superbowl ring, was the youngest coach to reach 100 wins, and his winning percentage is only second to Vince Lombardi.

jynxycat

@Purple Dave: I smell a deadspin coverstory.. Seriously, someone could do a major case study on this

huginn

Actually it goes the same with American Football were the final score can be 3-0 or 7-0. I actually like watching soccer especially around the world cup. I dont have cable so i can't see the european games. Don't go blowing off another mans sport. either way...

GO PATRIOTS SMASH NEW YORK FOR ME!

FP Shindokie

Spiderbait

Could've been worse, at least you weren't Miami or Oakland.

Besides, Viks almost made it to the post season, it was just dumb luck that kept them out. Now me, even though I live in Ohio and cheer for the Browns I'm a Packers man at heart. Im not even upset they lost last night because for a young team getting that far is tremendous and they can only get better next year. Would it have been nie to see them in the SB? Yes, but in a way I'm happy that the giants are going instead because they have a better shot of beating NE (even though another NY vs Boston match up is the last thing America needs)

Sparx

theCornerinvasion

FoxHoundADAM

theespacepope

You're right... because I want to spend 3 hours watching a game where the final score is 1-0. FUN.

Also, check your spelling.

njhardcoreguy

I had to watch a revolving door of Tarvaris Jackson, Brooks Bollinger, and Kelly Holcomb this year, so if Brady is average, I don't even want to know what the Vikings trio rates... Eight, sometimes nine in the box to stop Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor, and that's as good as we got from the QBs?

seafisch

(thats right american football! fotball = soccer

Fluffy22

Well I know a certain, Ex-girlfriend; Boss; Jock; ect. that I'd love to have entangled...err.. "engaged" into an EA photo shoot with...

Mwa ha ha ha !!!

Man, the world of video games never runs out of devices does it?

SuperMekman

Granted our sample set is low, but given EA's propensity for producing yearly titles, we can watch the data grow.

UVaDave

badasscat

I was about to bring this to light. It's been cursed to suck since EA nabbed that license.

Sollus

njhardcoreguy

mariospants

JackTretton

Spiffyness

levarien

Well seeing as how average can be a lot of things would you at least agree that hes overhyped? The best QB does more with less and its not hard to do everything when you've got high price talent around you keeping you're ass above water.

Sparx

tecknical

Kcgig1 (NY FTW)

He hasn't become victim because he's never been that great at what he does.

ex: "Well Al, when you get touchdowns you put points on the board. And whoever puts up the most points wins the game."

Thanks for the insight John.

njhardcoreguy

Just a minor point, still loved reading it.

Zensation

Also Bill Lambier was never the same after Bill Lambier Combat Basketball

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

And Shawn Alexander is a dumbass. He'd rather be on the cover and injured than not be on the cover and healthy all season? Don't put that on your free agency resume, sparky...

seafisch

smitty1123

gadgetfanatic

Still, it's fun to cherry pick stats and sensationalize it. Isn't that what the media is for anyway?

Luis

Seriously, though, not being anything close to a football fan myself, I'd still like to see the debunking expanded to include the following points:

1. How many of the people who got the cover shot were approaching the predictable ends of their careers when they landed on the cover (i.e. how man of them would have started to show noticable performance drops even if the Madden game didn't exist).

2. How many of them had unusually good years leading into the Madden cover, only to resume their regular level of playing the year they got the cover. As with most major awards, it seems like you wouldn't get picked based on your total career, but rather just the what you've done in the last year. That being the case, people should be more likely to be selected when they have an anomolously excellent year that they shouldn't ever be able to repeat under any circumstances, than if they were just rolling along in a consistently great career.

3. How many football players manage to go a whole career without a performance-affecting injury of any sort? It's fine and well to say how likely they would be to last through the "curse" season without receiving an injury, but I'd be more curious to see how much of an inevitability it is for all players, at some point or another.

Purple Dave

Tuffy

levarien

Let me save you some trouble there, its not Brady, hes average at best. Anyone of us could do the same thing with that O-line. Although they do need to get off his ass and start seeing him for the average player that he is. Let's see him do that stuff in Detroit and Oakland and then judge him because I just dont see it.

Sparx

Innings Eater

Lemming To The Sea

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

njhardcoreguy

I'm asking for a friend.

Tuffy

To really disprove you need to see how often they were injured before and after, performance before and after and lastly, team record before an after.

We need more stats and info. Until then the Madden curse lives on :P

Lachoy

DocBacca

Fried Yoda

This was actually debunked a long time ago by Snopes (more people should read that site):
[www.google.com]

duderdude2

So, if someone makes the cover for Madden one year, it's based on the season they just played, right? And that season must have been pretty good for them to be put on the cover, which hopefully means an injury free season. So that year, they beat the odds.

The season following, the odds catch up to them. They get hurt. I admit this is the gambler's fallacy I'm arguing here, but it still makes sense.

If you have a good season, you make it onto the cover of Madden. Are you going to have another good season? Chances are you are not - chances are you will get injured. And if you made cover of Madden, you pretty much got the EA MVP award. If you are on top, your game has nowhere to go but down.

I'm just sayin' - odds aren't with Madden cover models. Odds are with injury.

Tonx

Blue_Six

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

Naturally though people will make what they will of anything to further some odd truth they believe in.

RBecho

Kavatar

Yea, Tommie was garbage. But the defense... I'm just sayin >.>

Don't hate

Fyren

multimoog

superbeast1370

superbeast1370

Fried Yoda

But name one religion based in fact. Does the God you believe in have an office at Randolph and State to quell naysayers? But if I were to come on here and say that religion is merely a story to maintain peace and order within a community, I doubt many people would back me up, regardless of any research I might do.

The fact is, those that appear on the Madden cover generally tend to have a bad follow-up season. The cause is of little concern. The details are unimportant. And truths can be stretched a bit when it comes to such trivial matters of curses or religion.

In short: Thanks for ruining my fun, Luke!

crewwolfy

Fried Yoda

rluzinski

Did anyone see Pat's defense wtfpwn the redzone last night?.

Anyone?

Fyren

The Cubs are cursed, the Madden cover is a funny thing to talk about every year. Way to kill the joke.

Lou3000

munniec

Tonx

That's comedy.

TheBrianIsAstonishing

All I read was statistical cherry picking trying to deny the fact that they had bad seasons or were injured.

The article mentions several times that only the year that you are on the cover counts. So why even mention the fact that culpeper had three good years after the curse year? It's completely irrelevant.

For marshal faulk, the REALITY is that he had a bad year. One of the worse of his career, there is not denying that FACT, what the rest of his team did or did not do is irrelevant.

Not sure what you mean when you say "that is statistical cherry picking at its best" when referring to ray lewis. He has had a very bad season by his standards, and missed two games with injury. You can't use the fact that he made the pro bowl as proof that he had a good year, as any football fan knows, the pro bowl is a COMPLETE joke, nothing more than a popularity contest.

The McNabb thing is just funny. He missed 5 games due to injury. That is a third of the season. Not only that, he only had a decent year when he wasn't injured. You cant try and sugar coat this one. Its the curse in full effect.

Vince Young. The titans went to the playoffs because of their defense. Look up youngs numbers, he was AWFUL. 9 TDs and 17 INTS, thas is horrible. He regressed. He didnt have a single big run this year, he was hobbled by that toe injury ALL Year. He was incredibly bad.

nico002

xpnet

Rob

Matt Sussman

Derek, IN

levarien

Grumpz®

AwShucks

NotAZombie

crim

I am going to co-sign with you on this.

re4de2ye0

Also good to hear from EA in this article too. Good to know the NFL players themselves don't give two shits about the Madden curse.

Tonx

Alot of these issues, is that after they appear on madden, their careers have gone spiraling down hill. Vick, Mcnabb, Alexander and Lewis have gone from all-pro to all-no since the cover. Young might have been the exception.

If anything, it's clearly psychological. A player sees the early issues, and keeps hearing of the issues, and it gets in there head. Talk to LT, HE believes it enough to turn down the cover. Like the Boston Curse, you keep hearing enough and people think it is fact.

huginn

Skemo

goldwings

Fried Yoda

Ballaboy311

JackTretton

Ghede