Electronic Arts’ “Madden NFL” video game is one of most successful game series of all time, selling over 130 million copies since 1988. Beginning with Madden NFL 2001, each game featured a new NFL star on its cover, and fans quickly noticed a correlation between an athlete landing on the cover of Madden and a subsequent drop in his performance or legacy. This came to be known as the “Madden Curse”, and nearly 19 years later, the stigma is still present. Let’s take a look at each iteration of the game and see if there really is an ongoing “curse”.

Madden 1988-2000 – John Madden

The namesake of the series, coach Madden never had a losing record during his 10 years with the Oakland Raiders, finishing with a 76% win rate, the second-highest in NFL history. He is now 82 years old, and six years after his final appearance on the cover of the game, Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Status: Not cursed

Madden NFL 2001 – Eddie George

When he was put onto the cover, George was coming off a Pro Bowl performance at 26 years old. The next season, he had the best year of his career, rushing for 1,509 yards and 14 touchdowns. He would go on to play for only four more seasons, rushing for over 1,000 yards twice. He was clearly overused in Tennessee, but it is interesting that his career peaked right after appearing on the cover.

Status: Cursed

Madden NFL 2002 – Daunte Culpepper

Culpepper landed on the cover after tossing 33 touchdown passes and running for seven more in just his second year in the league. He looked like the next star QB, but the Madden Curse hit him hard. In 2001, he was limited by injury to 11 games, throwing 14 scores and 13 interceptions.

The next season, he led the NFL with 23 picks. He made the Pro Bowl in 2003 and 2004, throwing for over 4,700 yards in 2004, but that would be his last year as a full-time starter. After stops in Miami, Oakland, and Detroit, Culpepper was out of the league by age 33. Once the brightest young star in the NFL, Culpepper’s career goes down as a massive disappointment.

Status: Cursed

Madden NFL 2003 – Marshall Faulk

At the time of his cover status, Faulk had been one of the NFL’s most dynamic offensive weapons for eight seasons, including three straight first-team All-Pros from 1999-2001. After appearing on the cover, his career began to end. In 2002, he rushed for fewer than 1,000 yards for the first time since 1996, and his rushing totals would decrease until he bottomed out at 292 yards in 2005, when he retired at 32 years old. Faulk is an all-time great, but even Hall of Famers aren’t immune to the Madden Curse.

Status: Cursed

Madden NFL 2004 – Michael Vick

In 2003, Vick was the obvious choice for cover athlete. He was arguably the most physically talented quarterback in NFL history, with his speed, running ability, and arm strength outclassing every other signal-caller in the league. The Atlanta Falcons were never the most successful team with Vick leading them, but they were certainly the most exciting.

Vick suffered an injury which limited him to five games in 2003, but made the Pro Bowl in 2004 and 2005. After rushing for over 1,000 yards in 2006, Vick was imprisoned for his involvement in a dog fighting business, and missed the next two seasons.

After serving his sentence, he rejuvenated his career with the Philadelphia Eagles before ending it as a backup with the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers. Vick changed the game of football forever, but never even came close to reaching his potential. A large reason for that was his prison sentence, but another was the Madden Curse.

Status: Cursed

Madden NFL 2005 – Ray Lewis

A Super Bowl champion and one of the league’s best linebackers, Lewis was the first defensive player to be featured on the cover of Madden. After his appearance, he would play nine more seasons, making seven more Pro Bowls, three All-Pro teams, and winning another Super Bowl ring. It’s safe to say that Lewis avoided the curse.

Status: Not cursed

Madden NFL 2006 – Donovan McNabb

After making the cover, McNabb missed seven games during the 2005 season, and won only four of his nine starts. The rest of his career would be mostly injury-plauged, and while he did make one Pro Bowl, he never came close to his 2004 performance, when he threw 31 scores against eight picks. Many have chosen to forget that he played for the Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings at the end of his career, especially fans of those teams.

Status: Cursed

Madden NFL 2007 – Shaun Alexander

All Alexander did to earn his spot on the cover was rush for 1,880 yards in 2005, and set the then-NFL record for rushing touchdowns with 27. Unfortunately, injuries ruined the remainder of his career, as he missed 23 games over the next three seasons before retiring. One of the early 2000’s best players at any position is now relatively unknown.

Status: Cursed

Madden NFL 2008 – Vince Young

Young’s place on the cover was a bit odd, almost like putting the cart before the horse, when the horse was a sickly foal that wasn’t guaranteed to live to adulthood. Young went 8-5 as a starter, made the Pro Bowl, and won Offensive Rookie of the Year, but threw just 12 touchdowns to 13 interceptions. He went 9-6 as a starter in 2007, but threw just nine TDs and 17 INTs.

He played in just three games in 2008, then went 8-2 as a starter in 2009, but was out of the league by 2012. Young’s dedication and work ethic were questioned throughout his career, as was his ability to fully grasp a playbook. Perhaps EA jumped the gun on anointing Young as the next star QB, or maybe Young’s fall from grace was a result of his appearance on the cover of Madden.

Status: Cursed

Madden NFL 2009 – Brett Favre

At 39 years old, Favre was the oldest cover athlete to appear aside from John Madden until Tomb Brady nine years later. Already one of the greatest QBs in league history, Favre had two more objectives to complete before retiring for good; win another Super Bowl and get on the cover of Madden. He accomplished the latter, possibly at the expense of the former.

After making the cover as a Green Bay Packer, Favre played the 2008 season for the New York Jets, throwing 22 TDs and 22 picks. After a tumultuous stay in New York, Favre moved on to Minnesota, where he threw 33 scores and seven picks in 2009. He nearly returned to the Super Bowl that year, but his gunslinging nature got the best of him, as a late interception against the New Orleans Saints dashed his hopes of one more ring.

After throwing 19 picks in 13 games in 2010, Favre finally hung up his cleats. Although the end of his career was disappointing, it’s hard to argue that it was due to the Madden Curse rather than father time.

Status: (Probably) Not cursed

Madden 10 – Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu

Arizona and Pittsburgh met in Super Bowl XLIII, one of the most exciting championship games in recent memory. Two players were selected to appear on the cover for the first and only time to date, Cardinals’ WR Larry Fitzgerald and Steelers’ S Troy Polamalu. Both are future Hall of Fame inductees, with Fitzgerald still going strong at age 35.

Polamalu retired after the 2014 season, having made three Pro Bowls and two All-Pro teams after his cover appearance. Fitzgerald has suffered through plenty of terrible QB play (with the exception of five years of Carson Palmer when healthy), yet has still managed six thousand-yard seasons since 2008. Polamalu fell off a cliff during his last season, but neither player was really affected much by the curse. Maybe it was because there were two athletes instead of one.

Status: Not cursed

Madden 11 – Drew Brees

A Super Bowl victory at age 30 put Brees on the cover of Madden 11, and since then, he hasn’t returned to the big game, but he has rewritten the record books. As far as single-season performances go, he held the record most passing yards in a season for two years before Peyton Manning beat him by a single yard.

He holds the top three spots for passes completed, tied for first in yards per game, and four of the top five spots for completion percentage, including his record-setting 74.4% number in 2018. For his career, he ranks first in passing yards and is still adding to that record, second in passing touchdowns, and needs only 20 next season to overtake Manning, third in passer rating, first in yards per game, and first in completion percentage.

The Saints have suffered heartbreaking playoff defeats in each of the past two seasons, but as long as Brees is under center, they will be Super Bowl contenders.

Status: Not cursed

Madden 12 – Peyton Hillis

One of the NFL’s strangest anomalies, Hillis spent his first two seasons as a fullback with Denver, and was part of the trade package that sent Brady Quinn to the Broncos. In 2010, he rushed for 1,177 yards and 11 touchdowns, while displaying a violent and powerful running style thought to be extinct. Hillis exemplified everything the city of Cleveland loves; a hard-nosed, hard-working, blue-collar competitor.

The next season, injuries limited him to 10 games while his yards per carry dropped by 0.8. A mysterious case of strep throat, contract disagreement, and a sudden interest in becoming a CIA agent (yes, really) led to Hillis’s departure following the season. He spent a year with the Chiefs and two with the Giants as a seldom-used backup before retiring in 2015. We haven’t heard much of him since, so maybe he really did become a secret agent.

Status: Cursed

Madden 13 – Calvin Johnson

Megatron had a phenomanol 2011 season, and followed it up by setting the NFL record for receiving yards in a season with 1,964. He caught only five touchdowns however, and the Lions went 4-12. Over the next three seasons, Johnson made an All-Pro team and three Pro Bowls, before suddenly retiring at the age of 30. Johnson’s performance didn’t take a hit but his body wasn’t able to handle playing anymore. Just like Barry Sanders, Johnson left the game with many good years ahead of him.

Status: Cursed

Madden 25 – Barry Sanders and Adrian Peterson

It’s hard to curse a player who is already retired, so Sanders is immune. The 25th iteration of Madden featured one of the most electrifying players the NFL has ever seen, and once it released on the next-gen Xbox One and PlayStation 4, featured the league’s current best RB. Peterson was coming off a 2,097-yard performance. In 2014, he missed two games but still rushed for 1,266 yards.

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In 2015, he missed all but the first game due to child abuse allegations, but bounced back in 2016 by making the All-Pro team and the Pro Bowl. A torn meniscus limited him to three games in 2016, and his 2017 stints with New Orleans and Arizona did not go well either. At age 33, an old man by RB standards, he rushed for over 1,000 yards with the Washington Redskins in 2018. Still, the stark contrast in his career pre-and-post-Madden 25 is very telling.

Status: Cursed

Madden 15 – Richard Sherman

Sherman was once the NFL’s premier cornerback, making the All-Pro teams in 2012 and 2013.  He was an All-Pro again in 2014 and made the Pro Bowl in 2015 and 2016, but has since lost a step, and he was never a fast player to begin with. Sherman is still a quality player for the San Francisco 49ers, but he is far past his prime.

Status: Cursed

Madden 16 – Odell Beckham Jr.

Known for his ridiculous one-handed catch against the Dallas Cowboys, Beckham remains one of the NFL’s loudest personalities, and although he has missed 16 games over the past two seasons, one of its best receivers. Still just 26 years old, OBJ is one a Hall-of-Fame trajectory, and could be on his way to a new team very soon.

Status: Not cursed 

Madden 17 – Rob Gronkowski

The nine-year veteran already has an excellent case for greatest tight end of all time. Three Super Bowls, four All-Pros, and five Pro Bowls is an impressive resume, and there are few players at any position who have matched his dominance at times. Gronk did have a thousand-yard season in 2017, but has missed 13 games 13 games since 2016, and has been at less than 100% for many of the games he did play in. His body is breaking down, and is a major reason why he has contemplated retirement for the past two offseasons despite not having turned 30 yet.

Status: Cursed

Madden 18 – Tom Brady

It appeared as if the Madden Curse had finally caught the greatest of all time, as the Patriots fell to the Eagles in Super Bowl LII. Then, when Brady had his worst passing season since 2013, it was thought that age had caught up to him as well. Yet Brady proved the doubters wrong, and lead New England to a Super Bowl LIII victory. It may be too early to make a decision on the curse, as there is still plenty of time for it to ruin Brady, but it hasn’t just yet.

Status: Not cursed

Madden 19 – Terrell Owens and Antonio Brown

Owens is featured on Madden 19’s Hall of Fame edition, with Brown on the base game’s cover. Brown had his typical excellent season, catching 105 passes for 1,297 yards and 15 scores. However, his relationships with his teammates and coaches reached a boiling point, and Brown did not play in the Steelers’ final game of the season, which they needed to win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Brown spent the first part of the offseason publicly affirming his desire to be traded, and he eventually was, to the Oakland Raiders, and was given a rich new contract. Brown may have avoided the curse, but it looks like the Steelers were given it instead.

Now, let’s do the math. Out of 20 games, there have been 12 curses. This gives us a 60% likelihood of the Madden Curse existing. Not amazing odds, but there is a probability. Madden 20’s cover athlete has a 60% chance of being cursed. Is the risk worth the clout of being on the cover of the only licensed NFL video game? Let’s ask John Madden:

“They’re either going to run the ball here or their going to pass it.”

On second thought, that may not be such a good idea.