Is the Madden Curse real or just a coincidence?

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The discussion centers around the so-called "Madden Curse," which suggests that players featured on the cover of the Madden Football video game experience a decline in performance or face injuries in the following season. Starting in 2000, the trend shifted from John Madden's image to various players, each of whom faced significant setbacks after their cover appearances. Examples include Dorsey Levens' decline, Eddie George's playoff blunder, and Michael Vick's preseason injury. The conversation also touches on whether these misfortunes occurred in the same year as their cover appearances and debates the validity of attributing these events to a curse versus natural regression to the mean in sports performance. Some participants argue that injuries and declines are part of the unpredictability of sports rather than a supernatural phenomenon.
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Prior to 1999 John Madden was the featured face on the boxes of the video game Madden Football.

2000 is when they first started using players on the box cover.

2000 (Dorsey Levens)- The once stellar Levens was hardly effective that year and disappeared into oblivion from that point after.

2001 (Eddie George)- George failed to catch a pass in a playoff game that was subsequently intercepted by linebacker Ray Lewis and was returned for a touchdown. The Ravens won the game and ended up winning the Superbowl. George's career sharply declined after.

2002 (Dante Culpepper)- Culpepper injures his knee and the Vikings have a losing season, just one year after they made it to the NFC championship game.

2003 (Marshall Faulk)- Faulk was injured during season and never had a 1000 rushing yard season from that point after. Faulk disappeared into oblivion.

2004 (Michael Vick)- Vick breaks his leg in a preseason game and the Falcons have a losing season.

2005 (Ray Lewis)- Lewis fails to have an interception for the entire year and the Ravens don't make the playoffs.

2006 (Donovan McNabb)- First game of the season McNabb gets injured. Later on he suffers a sports hernia and misses the rest of the season.

2007 (Shaun Alexander)- Shaun Alexander breaks a bone in his foot. Alexander never seems to fully recover and disappears into oblivion after smashing the NFL record for most TDs scored in a season by a RB.

2008 (Vince Young)- Vince Young misses time due to a leg injury. The highly touted prospect who was a 1st round draft pick has since battled depression problems and run ins with the law, and also has seemed to disappear into oblivion.

2009 (Brett Favre)- After starting out the season well (8-3), the Jets collapse and fail to make the playoffs by losing 4 of their last 5 games on 8 interceptions thrown(versus only 2 TDs) by Brett Favre. To rub salt in the wound, the Jets lose their final game to the Miami Dolphins who acquired Chad Pennington (who was released by the Jets to make room for Favre). Favre also injured his shoulder.

2010 (Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald)- In the first game this year Polamalu leaves the game with a knee injury after a 280 lbs lineman falls on his leg. From the replay it looks like it will be a bad knee sprain and groin injury, or possibly some torn knee ligaments. Fitzgerald has yet to play a game, so we'll see what happens with him.

The Madden Curse continues...:bugeye:
 
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Did all of those mishaps happen on the same year that they were put on the box?

If not, then the only thing this curse shows is that baseball has a large element of danger and luck.
 
junglebeast said:
Did all of those mishaps happen on the same year that they were put on the box?

If not, then the only thing this curse shows is that baseball has a large element of danger and luck.

Yes.
 
gravenewworld said:
2005 (Ray Lewis)- Lewis fails to have an interception for the entire year and the Ravens don't make the playoffs.
That's not really a failure, linebackers aren't expected to get interceptions... and the reason the Ravens didn't make the playoffs was because of their terrible offense.
 
junglebeast said:
Did all of those mishaps happen on the same year that they were put on the box?

If not, then the only thing this curse shows is that baseball has a large element of danger and luck.

They did happen the same year. Even if they didn't happen the same year, I wouldn't draw the same conclusion you did.

Vince Coleman being partially eaten by a tarp machine might lead me to that conclusion, but the Madden curse definitely wouldn't.
 
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It is regression to the mean the reason that the players got onto the box cover in the first place is because they had had an exeptional season the year before, the only way they could go is down.
There was a flying instructor who said; I've given up praising students who make good landings because the next time they inveriably make a poor one, however if I criticize a poor landing next time the student gets his act together and improves, just regression to the mean.
 

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