Madden NFL football games have consistently been a cash cow for Electronic Arts, but the game also has the dubious distinction of containing the Madden Curse — any football star who appears on the cover art seems to meet a fate that involves injury, mishap or extremely bad luck in their careers, which often results in them sitting out part or all of the football season.
The next athlete, or should we say victim, to adorn the covers of Madden is the Titans’ Vince Young. The news was first leaked by the City Paper of Nashville, Tennessee and substantiated by a news leak by none other than John Madden on his 15 minute daily radio talk show with San Francisco radio station KCBS.
Madden unintentionally fumbled the secret on his radio broadcast when he said, "Vince Young is going to be on the cover. Why? Is that not out yet? Did I just let something out of the bag? … And once it’s out of the bag you can’t bring it back in and say I was just kidding?"
Fans are so concerned about the Madden Curse that they have sent petitions into Electronic Arts to ignore and bypass their favorite players from being placed on the cover art of the game.
Young’s agent, Major Adams told The Tennessean, "We don’t believe in no jinx. People said when they put Vince on the cover of Sports Illustrated [that] it was going to jinx him in the Rose Bowl game, and [Texas] won the national championship. We don’t believe in stuff like that. In the unfortunate event he gets hurt, it is just a part of the game, not because [you’re on] the cover [of Madden football].
Madden NFL 08 is scheduled for release on August 14. At the time of this writing, no confirmation has come from EA on Young being on the cover of the next Madden game.
[via Gamespot]
