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Will Tom Brady be the next NFL player to suffer from the Madden Curse? If history is any indication, stay away from drafting Tom Brady. He will be the fifth pro player to appear on the Madden cover, and the four before him fell victim to the curse.
Madden started putting players on its cover starting with the release of its 2001 video game (released at the end of 2000). It all started with Eddie George and continued with the next three victims in Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk, and Michael Vick. Let’s take a look at the production of each player the year before they appeared on the cover and their production the year after the release.
The first year that Madden came out for the PS2, the game was released closer to the end of the 2000 year. Meaning the NFL season had already started for 2000 and thus it took a year for the curse to break in. Since then the game has been released in August before the start of the NFL season.
Eddie George: Appeared on the 2001 John Madden Cover (released in Dec of 2000).
2000 stats:
403 carries — 1962 combined yards — 16 touchdowns
2001 stats: (start of season after appearing on cover)
315 carries – 1218 combined yards – 5 touchdowns
Daunte Culpepper: Appeared on 2002 John Madden Cover (released in Aug of 2001).
2000 stats:
16 games – 3937 passing yards – 33 Passing TDs – 470 rushing yards – 7 rushing TDs
2001 stats:
11 games – 2612 passing yards – 14 Passing TDs – 416 rushing yards – 5 rushing TDs
Marshall Faulk: Appeared on 2003 John Madden Cover (released in Aug of 2002).
2001 stats:
260 carries – 2147 combined yards – 21 touchdowns
2002 stats:
212 carries – 1490 combined yards – 10 touchdowns
Michael Vick: Appeared on the 2004 John Madden Cover (released in Aug of 2003).
2002 stats:
15 games – 2936 passing yards – 16 passing Tds – 777 rushing yards – 8 rushing TD’s.
2003 stats:
5 games – 585 passing yards – 4 passing Td’s – 255 rushing yards – 1 rushing TD
If you don’t believe in curses, just ask fans of the Boston Red Sox. They have already been hexed by the Curse of the Bambino. This will be the second curse placed on the pro teams in the New England area.
