The Madden Curse is real, and Young is next

I just don’t get it. I’m through trying to even begin to fathom why any NFL player would do… I just don’t get it. I’m through trying to even begin to fathom why any NFL player would do it.

EA Sports announced this week that Titans quarterback Vince Young will grace the cover of Madden 2008, which will hit the shelves before the upcoming season. A runaway winner of the Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award, the smooth playmaker is on the verge of becoming one of the faces of the NFL’s next generation of players.

But I think he is taking on something tougher than any defense he has seen thus far.

The Madden Curse is as sure as death and taxes. It has no remorse. It is all-powerful. The Curse can ruin any player’s season and, in turn, his career.

It is the Kavorcka.

And I’m not a superstitious guy by any means. This, though, is different. The Madden Curse has a proven track record working for it when it comes to the athletes who front the sole game with the NFL Players Association license. The thing is, everybody seems to know this, but EA still opts to pick some poor player to sign his name to injured reserve for the upcoming season.

And I think EA believes in the Curse as well. If that weren’t the case, then why haven’t we seen Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or LaDanian Tomlinson on the cover? These guys have had more remarkable careers than any player on the cover in the last decade. All are marketable, especially Manning. Where have the NFL’s golden children been?

The only reason I see is that the league doesn’t want the Curse ruining its “SportsCenter” Top 10 staples. What we’ve seen instead is a bevy of players who are supposed to be on the cutting edge of their careers. In 2004 we saw Michael Vick and in 2006 Donovan McNabb. There have been legends (in 2003 with Marshall Faulk) and players on the rise (Ray Lewis in 2005), but each felt the effects the of the Curse in some form or another.

Now there is Young, a guy that has his entire career in front of him. He’s a guy who has already enjoyed plenty of success in a league that questioned his readiness as a starting quarterback.

Why would he, or anyone for that matter, want to risk his career for a few extra bucks? It’s not even as if being on the cover is a glamour shot anymore; it is synonymous with misfortune. The only thing a new consumer wonders when he or she picks up the new game is how long it will be until the guy they are staring at is on the shelf.

Nobody is impressed anymore. We’re all just waiting for the guy to take a fall so that this thing can keep going, and that’s not the way we should be promoting these athletes.

In retrospect, it is just a game and a marketing opportunity, but few chances come with such risk. If I were Young, I’d take out an insurance policy on my body, Willis McGahee style. Hopefully nothing happens to him, though, meaning he will escape the fate shared by McNabb, Vick, Daunte Culpepper and last year’s cover man, reigning MVP Shaun Alexander.

Dodging a trip to the team physician and an eventual spot on IR doesn’t mean the Curse still can’t take its toll, though.

Look at Eddie George and the aforementioned Ray Lewis, who had down seasons the years they made the cover. Lewis ultimately ended the year with a minor injury and although George stayed healthy, he had a critical fumble late in the Titans’ eventual playoff loss, an uncharacteristic mistake for such a great back.

There is no escape from the Curse for the players, so I think it’s time to go in a different direction. We should do away with players on the cover and go back to the way it used to be when John Madden himself fronted for the game. We should be through ruining the careers of players. Why not revert back to a failsafe method in which the worst thing that could happen to Madden is he mistakes the microphone for a drumstick and consumes it live on the air?

Hey, it could happen.

Wouldn’t that be a little more comical and less serious than fearing for Young’s career each and every week? I’d hate to have that anxiety on top of, you know, actually playing football each week.