On Tuesday, EA Sports officially revealed the latest installment in the Madden NFL video game series, Madden NFL 21. The game features Baltimore Ravens superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson on the cover, which means the unanimous MVP is now pitted against the infamous ‘Madden Curse', which has claimed many victims since 2001.
Let's take a quick look back at history, and determine whether or not Jackson will be able to buck the trend.
We already examined all cases through Madden 18's Tom Brady in this article from March of 2019. The verdict was that out of the 19 games at that point (excluding Madden 19 and Antonio Brown), 12 cover athletes were cursed. Since then, there have been a few developments.
There may be an argument to be had about Brady, as his 2018 and 2019 regular seasons were not up to par for him, and the New England Patriots lost Super Bowl LII. The Pats then rebounded to win another title in Super Bowl LIII. However, the team was slapped in the face in the 2019 Wild Card round by the Tennessee Titans, and Brady departed in free agency.
Now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he is surrounded by far superior skill position talent (including his Patriots teammate Rob Gronkowski), and has the chance to prove father time and the Madden Curse has not claimed him just yet. The jury is still out here, but should he play against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in a Super Bowl, it would certainly make things interesting.
Madden 19 is perhaps the most entertaining example of the Madden Curse. Brown's 2018 season went well on the field, but off it, things were far from okay. His relationship with his teammates and coaching staff, especially Ben Roethlisberger, threw the entire locker room into disarray, and Brown refused to play in the regular-season finale, which was a must-win game for Pittsburgh. After vocally expressing his desire to be traded, Brown was eventually dealt to the Oakland Raiders and signed a three-year $50 million deal. That's when things began to snowball out of control.
Brown sat out of much of training camp with various issues surrounding a serious foot injury he apparently suffered in a cryotherapy machine. He also could not find a helmet that he liked, as his old one had been outlawed by the NFL. He got into fights with teammates and had a vocal altercation with general manager Mike Mayock, during which Brown reportedly called Mayock a racial slur.
Brown would never play a regular season game for the Raiders, and was cut before the season. Brown signed with New England, and played in one game, catching four passes for 56 yards and a touchdown, before being released due to sexual assault allegations. There is so much more to the entire Brown saga, and you can get caught up here.
So it's safe to say that after taking a year off for Brady, the Madden Curse doubled down hard on Brown. Of course, a mythical video game curse is the least of Brown's mental and emotional issues, and hopefully he is able to get the help he so obviously needs and turns his life around, for his sake and his family's.
Madden NFL 20 boasted Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on the cover, fresh off a record-setting sophomore campaign. A knee injury scared Chiefs fans, but Mahomes avoided serious damage and returned after about a month, and finished the season with over 4,000 passing yards, 26 touchdowns, and just five interceptions. He of course led Kansas City to victory in Super Bowl LIV, and while he isn't out of the woods just yet, Mahomes looks like he may be able to out-throw the curse after such a great season.
Now we're up to speed, and we can nail down an accurate tally. Out of 21 games, we have 13 curses. This gives Lamar Jackson a 62 percent chance of being cursed. If we consider only quarterbacks who have been on the cover, that chance drops to 50 percent. It's very important that we define what would count as a curse for Jackson.
After a modest rookie season taking over for Joe Flacco for the final seven games, the improvement that Jackson made in 2019 was nothing short of incredible. He went from a poor passer to one of the NFL's best from the pocket, totaling 36 passing scores to just six interceptions, and retaining his truly elite running ability. Unless he is some kind of football savant, it's almost impossible for him to keep up that level of play. It's certainly unfair to expect him to. And as data shows, Jackson has struggled mightily in the playoffs, perhaps due to defenses stacking the field with extra defensive backs.
If Jackson has another stellar regular season but again falls short in the playoffs, would that constitute the curse taking hold of him? Likely not, since that wouldn't be something introduced post-Madden cover. If opponents begin to follow the trend and Jackson can't adapt his playstyle to beat nickel and dime-heavy defenses, or perhaps suffers an injury, then the Curse will have returned.
Baltimore's roster is absolutely loaded, and the team has done everything it possibly can to put Lamar Jackson in the best position to succeed. It's rare to see an organization commit that hard to a rookie quarterback, especially one drafted so late in the first round, and especially when Jackson's playstyle is so unique.
Tailoring the offense has of course had a major impact on Jackson's success, but let's not discredit Jackson himself; he entered the league as a sensational runner with a big arm who didn't look comfortable throwing from the pocket and whose accuracy was streaky at best. He's completely changed that perception, and it's a testament to how much talent he has, as well as his incredible work ethic.
One great season doesn't mean he's guaranteed to keep up that level of success through his prime, but it's impossible to not be extremely impressed at what he's done, and he just turned 23 in January.
Jackson is the prototypical Madden cover athlete; he's young, exceptionally good, and is a unique player, the likes of which the NFL really hasn't seen before. Michael Vick may have had more pure talent, but we never saw him perform at the level Jackson did in 2019.
It will be interesting to see if the Madden Curse can catch up to him, but if Mahomes can out-throw it, Jackson can certainly out-run it.
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