Oh, that wacky cover art. What powers do you have over the superstars of the NFL?
August 07, 2008 | 1:44 PM PSTby: Tim Livingston
Ah. The "Madden Curse." Evoking that name brings a broad range of responses. "Stupid." "See! Told ya!" "I hope so-and-so isn't on the cover next year." "He'll be the one to break it!" "I am SO glad LT isn't on there!" "Maybe if Madden got back on there, there wouldn't be a curse anymore." Okay, so that last one is more my styling than most, but it's true. As popular as the Madden video game franchise is, the curse might be more popular for the simple fact that pundits and statheads alike can form their own conclusions as to whether or not a printed picture on a piece of plastic that happens to sell millions of copies a year truly affects the play of a certain player. Of course, thanks to the great site that I now write for, I've been given the platform in which to not only explain the theory, but to give my own opinion on it! Hence…the editorial.
These guys had a chance at Disneyland.
First off, the Madden Curse is something that started back before the 2000-01 NFL season. After legendary head coach John Madden had graced the cover for the first 11 years, the production team decided that they should start putting players on it, putting the spotlight on some of the game's most popular players. It had been frequent in other EA games at the time as Madden was the only game that didn't have an active player on the cover of the game. The basis was that the producers picked a big time impact player from the previous year and put them on the cover, usually to emphasize something in that year's game. Standard fare, really, but nobody would foresee exactly what would happen once the player was on the cover itself. It got to the point where if the player was on the cover, instead of being excited, some people would cover their eyes in horror. Why is it? Well, once on the cover, usually that season, that player would not perform as well as the year before, when his play earned him the cover in the first place. Some range from your normal down years to years under expectation to complete abortions – the type of season that would make you rethink your thoughts on public exposure.
So, let's take a look at the players who have been on the cover of Madden since the 2001 version and dissect exactly what went wrong. We start with a forgotten running back on the fringe of Hall of Fame consideration:
These guys had a chance at Disneyland.
First off, the Madden Curse is something that started back before the 2000-01 NFL season. After legendary head coach John Madden had graced the cover for the first 11 years, the production team decided that they should start putting players on it, putting the spotlight on some of the game's most popular players. It had been frequent in other EA games at the time as Madden was the only game that didn't have an active player on the cover of the game. The basis was that the producers picked a big time impact player from the previous year and put them on the cover, usually to emphasize something in that year's game. Standard fare, really, but nobody would foresee exactly what would happen once the player was on the cover itself. It got to the point where if the player was on the cover, instead of being excited, some people would cover their eyes in horror. Why is it? Well, once on the cover, usually that season, that player would not perform as well as the year before, when his play earned him the cover in the first place. Some range from your normal down years to years under expectation to complete abortions – the type of season that would make you rethink your thoughts on public exposure.
So, let's take a look at the players who have been on the cover of Madden since the 2001 version and dissect exactly what went wrong. We start with a forgotten running back on the fringe of Hall of Fame consideration:
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