Video Game Facts: The Madden Curse!

The Madden Games. Who doesn’t know Madden? This popular football game first released in 1988 with John Madden as Electronic Art’s (EA) “cover player” to sell more games, and John Madden’s Football was an instant success. But did you know when EA replaced John Madden with other players, that Madden cursed the series?

So, for those who do not believe in curses at first (such as myself), here is some evidence about how Madden will be cursed forever!

It all began in 1998, where Garrison Hearst was racking up points for the San Francisco 49ers. EA liked this player, and when they offered Hearst to lead the Madden series, he agreed. Almost immediately after the offer was accepted, Hearst broke his ankle and could barely play at all that season. But maybe it was just one time, right? Wrong. When Madden NFL 2000 was close to releasing, EA thought of offering the job as a cover player to Barry Sanders, who was widely considered one of the greatest running backs of all time, but before they had the chance, Sanders surprisingly retired. EA, scrambling to find another player, offered the job to Green Bay running back Dorsey Levens, who only had two seasons, but was rising in skill and popularity. Unfortunately, a nagging injury made the Green Bay play one of the worst seasons they ever had since 1992, and released Levens in 2001. And so on and so forth. This curse appeared until 2013, when Calvin Johnson signed up and nothing happened, but it returned in Madden NFL 25 (in 2014), where Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings had a nagging foot injury and finally declared to be done for the season in December. But in Madden NFL 2015, the curse didn’t strike, as cover athlete Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks actually played really well and even played in the Super Bowl! It seemed like the curse was over, as in 2016 nothing happened either. But… Madden NFL 2017, cover player Rob Gronkowski from the New England Patriots suffered from a hamstring injury and needed back surgery. Curse, or coincidence? I’ll let you decide, but I wish Madden’s next cover athlete the best of luck, because Electronic Arts needs it!

Source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/the-madden-curse/

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