There are dozens of curses across sports, but few have left as much damage in its wake as the “Madden Curse.” Every year, one of the best players in the NFL dons the cover of the biggest sports video game in the U.S., and oftentimes, they don’t put together the best season. Sometimes, they suffer a major injury.
There are some victims of the Madden Curse who are never the same. Either their injury bleeds into future years, and sometimes even the rest of their career. Other times, the player isn’t nearly as effective as they were the previous year that they were on the cover.
This year, Saquon Barkley of the Philadelphia Eagles is on the cover. It’s definitely a risk, as Barkley is coming off a season where he carried the ball 436 times between the regular season and the playoffs. This is by far a career high, and it is a career where he has had injuries in the past. Can Barkley break the Madden Curse?
It has been done. Players have overcome the curse, while others are crushed by it. Barkley is the joining an illustrious group of superstars who were on the Madden cover. Can he be one of the few who beats the curse? Looking back at the dozens of players who were on the cover, who had it good in their Madden year and who regrets ever taking the opportunity?
One quick note, we do not acknowledge Barry Sanders has been on the cover, but since he did not play during those seasons, he has been omitted from this list.
26. Madden 13
Cover Athlete: Calvin Johnson
Curse Outcome: Record-breaking season
Whatever the opposite of a curse is, that is what Calvin Johnson did when he was on the cover of Madden 13. This was the year he cemented himself as one of the best receivers of all time. This was the year when he broke “the” record. Johnson caught 122 passes for 1,964 yards. That second stat, the yards gained, hasn’t been touched since. Johnson remains the closest wide receiver to 2,000 yards, even with the NFL adding a 17th game to the schedule.
Johnson, like Barry Sanders of Madden and Detroit Lions lore, also retired early. Megatron called it quits in 2016, ending a career that led him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So, maybe that’s the closest thing one could find to a curse? It’s definitely a stretch, but it’s all that exists for Johnson.
Truly, this is just the outlier of the list. The 25 other covers with someone besides John Madden and Barry Sanders have something that was at least distressful.
25. Madden 20
Cover Athlete: Patrick Mahomes
Curse Outcome: Small injury ahead of Super Bowl victory
Patrick Mahomes is one of the elite players who has been on the cover of Madden twice. The other players were Barry Sanders (who was on special editions) and Tom Brady. Mahomes is still deep into the prime of his career, so it seems likely he will eventually become the first player to be on the cover three times.
Let’s focus on the here and now. Mahomes' first cover came in 2019. He was taking a chance, being early in his career and prior to his true winning ways. Mahomes was putting together cuckoo numbers that we’ve never seen before, but he didn’t do it in the playoffs.
Still, the Kansas City Chiefs looked like they were on the upswing. There was nowhere to go but up for Mahomes. There was a slight hiccup here. Mahomes dislocated his patella in Week 7, and everyone held their breath. Luckily, it ended up being a two-week injury. This could have qualified for a curse, but he overcame it in a big way.
Mahomes would go on to win his first Super Bowl that season. How much better can a curse breaker be?
24. Madden 21
Cover Athlete: Lamar Jackson
Curse Outcome: Concussion in the playoffs
Lamar Jackson had some years where the Madden Curse would make sense, but 2020 was not one of them. Yes, it was a strange year with no crowds as the teams played through a pandemic, but Jackson still put up 1,000 yards rushing coming off his first MVP season. It was another dominant season.
Jackson saw a drop in statistics across the board, with the biggest being his touchdown passes dropping from 36 to 26. However, it wasn’t significant enough to be considered a “curse.” Having a few hundred yards less each year can be simple attrition.
The Baltimore Ravens made the playoffs once again, and that’s where things didn’t really go wrong. Jackson did win his first playoff game against the Tennessee Titans, but the next week against the Buffalo Bills was disastrous. Jackson was terrible, throwing a crucial interception in the third quarter.
Now down two scores, he tried to bring the Ravens back, but he suffered a concussion and was out for the entirety of the fourth quarter. The Ravens' season would end with a 17-3 loss to Buffalo.
23. Madden 2005
Cover Athlete: Ray Lewis
Curse Outcome: Ravens missed the playoffs
Back to another Ravens player, Madden 2005 is one for the history books. Ray Lewis on the cover brought about the introduction of the Hit Stick. Lewis was already a legend for his defensive play, and now he’s the face of a move in Madden that is still in the game to this day.
As for Lewis himself, nothing happened to him, per se. The Ravens did miss the playoffs, and it was the first year of Lewis’s career that he had no interceptions. Is this that bad? It kind of is what it is. He was still one of the best linebackers in the NFL at that point. He had 147 tackles on his stat sheet. There was nothing about it that screamed "cursed."
We would definitely label this season as “not cursed.” Lewis has quite a few controversies surrounding his career, but it was relatively quiet in 2004.
22. Madden 16
Cover Athlete: Odell Beckham Jr.
Curse Outcome: Suspended for fight with Josh Norman
Odell Beckham Jr. was on the Madden cover after one of the most electric starts to a career by a wide receiver ever. He was beloved after possibly the best catch in the history of football during his rookie year. Beckham was perpendicular to the ground during a play on Monday Night Football against the Dallas Cowboys when he caught the ball near the goalline. That catch alone probably got him the Madden cover.
This was back when fans could vote on who was on the Madden cover. Beckham beat out Rob Gronkowski in the vote, making him the youngest player to ever grace the cover of the video game franchise.
This isn’t a “curse” year, but it is the first year when there started to be cracks in the Beckham Jr. armor. He was suspended for a game after a fight with Carolina Panthers cornerback Josh Norman. He actually had multiple personal fouls in that game, and it might have cost the Giants, as they lost the game by just three points.
Beckham made the Pro Bowl in his first three seasons, but he never made the Pro Bowl again. A mixture of injuries and bad fits made the rest of his career pretty ineffective. However, during his Madden years, he was still one of the game’s best.
21. Madden 24
Cover Athlete: Josh Allen
Curse Outcome: Career high 18 interceptions, return of "Wide Right"
Josh Allen spent most of his young career at the top of the charts for quarterback rankings in the NFL. The Buffalo Bills finally got a superstar under center. They are now the leaders in the AFC East, and Allen is the reigning league MVP after a huge season. It’s no surprise he made it to the cover of Madden.
However, Allen did not play like a top-level quarterback in his year on the cover. In 2023, Allen saw his touchdowns drop, his interceptions rise to a career high of 18, and the Bills won two fewer games than the year before. It’s not great to see your statistics drop, but he still finished fifth in MVP voting.
The Bills did lose to the Chiefs in the Divisional Round again. This time wasn't as dramatic as previous matchups, but it was still devastating. Allen and the Bills entered the fourth quarter with a lead, but the Chiefs' defense shut them out, and Isaiah Pacheco scored the game-winner.
The Bills had a chance to tie the game late, but the two words that haunt the franchise once again reared their ugly head. Wide right. The words that have been played on repeat since Scott Norwood’s miss at Super Bowl XXV came back in this game. This time, Tyler Bass went wide right on a 44 yarder with less than two minutes to go, securing the victory for the Chiefs.
20. Madden 18
Cover Athlete: Tom Brady
Curse Outcome: Devastating Super Bowl loss
Tom Brady has only been injured once in his career, suffering a major knee injury of Week 1 of the 2008 season. He must have felt safe 10 seasons later when he agreed to go on the cover of Madden 18. He even said so when the press release announcing him as the cover athlete came out.
“I'm not one to believe in curses, so I'm ready to take the challenge head on like always,” Tom Brady via EA Sports press release.
He wasn’t wrong. Brady won the league MVP that season, and he took the Patriots back to the Super Bowl. He got to face a backup quarterback in Nick Foles, so it seemed like it was going to be an easy night for the GOAT. We know what happened next. Foles went nails and beat Brady at his own game, despite Brady throwing for more than 500 yards. It was a devastating loss for the Patriots.
On top of that, this was also the first year Brady’s then-wife Gisele Bundchen started to float the idea of his retirement publicly. Of course, this would be a narrative through the end of his career, which lasted years.
19. Madden 22
Cover Athletes: Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes
Curse Outcome: Neither made the Super Bowl
We go back to back with our Tom Brady covers. This one he shares with a player who hopes to battle him for “GOAT” status. Putting Brady and Mahomes on a cover together makes so much sense. Brady was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to end his glorious career, and Mahomes was just getting started. It was the perfect past and future dichotomy.
Brady did have an injury that required surgery. Brady had a knee issue in all of 2020, and he needed to get his MCL repaired before the start of the season. It didn’t really impact his season as he got back in time for Week 1 and put together a great season.
Mahomes, on the other hand, didn’t have a great season. He had a career-high in interceptions and was forced to play in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs for the first time in his career. He took the Chiefs to the AFC Title Game, but a huge interception in overtime contributed to a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Back to Brady, the end of this season got very bizarre for him. He announced he was walking away from football after 22 seasons. He would be the top guy in the sport and the best, possibly in any American sport. He was as good a winner as anyone. However, 40 days later, he changed his mind and went back to football. Of course, many say that put his personal life in flux, and he was divorced by the end of the year. Is that part of the curse?
18. Madden 14
Cover Athlete: Adrian Peterson
Curse Outcome: Statistical downturn before it went off the rails
The 2013 season started about as well as it possibly could. Adrian Peterson took the first carry of the season 78 yards for a touchdown. So much for a curse. He did struggle a bit over the first month of the season, but many believe that was more due to All-Pro fullback Jerome Felton’s injury. Once he returned in Week 4, we were back to business with Peterson.
He was once again one of the best running backs in the conference. He wasn’t an MVP like he was the year before, but he ran for more than 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns. The Vikings were once again good, and Peterson played all 16 games.
Peterson did have a very hard personal year. He overcame tragedy to continue to play football.
17. Madden 10
Cover Athletes: Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu
Curse Outcome: Polamalu missed nine games with knee injury
The first time the Madden franchise put two star players on the cover really put the Madden Curse to the test. Other EA Sports franchises have done this, and the curse actually impacted everyone. Looking at the EA Sports NHL franchise from this past season, NHL 25 had all three Hughes brothers on the cover. Quinn, Jack, and Luke Hughes were all injured at one point or another. That wasn’t what happened here with Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu.
Larry Fitzgerald was amazing that season. He finished the season with 97 catches and more than 1,000 yards with 13 touchdowns. He helped the Arizona Cardinals to 10 wins and a playoff berth. In the playoffs, Fitzgerald was a part of the highest-scoring playoff game of all time, a 52-45 Cardinals overtime win over the Green Bay Packers.
On the other side, Polamalu had a very frustrating season. He suffered multiple knee injuries that caused him to miss a total of 11 games. The injury was so severe that doctors told him if he tried to go back, a reinjury could shorten his career. It was just not worth it for him to return to a team that didn’t even make the playoffs.
There’s a reason why Madden very rarely goes for the double main event feel of this cover. It’s because there are twice as high a chance that the curse could impact the players in a negative way.
16. Madden 15
Cover Athlete: Richard Sherman
Curse Outcome: Super Bowl meme and offseason surgery
Sometimes, one small moment can almost overcome a Hall of Fame career. When you think of Richard Sherman, do you think of the Legion of Boom and the impact he had or do you think of the face he made when Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson to end Super Bowl XLIX? Most people think of the meme and GIF-worthy face Sherman made after that play that stole a second Super Bowl from his grasp.
That happened the season where Sherman was on the cover of Madden. The rest of the season went about as expected. His interception number dropped, but cornerbacks are inconsistent with their turnovers in general. That wouldn’t happen because of a curse.
The Seahawks looked like they were on the cusp of a dynasty. Marshawn Lynch was up there with the best running backs in the league. Russell Wilson was one of the best young quarterbacks in football. The defense was largely considered the best in football, led by Sherman, Bobby Wagner, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Michael Bennett, and Bruce Irvin.
After the loss in Super Bowl XLIX, this group never got back to the Super Bowl. Sherman had offseason surgery on his elbow. The surgery, known popularly as Tommy John Surgery, would knock baseball pitchers for 18 months. Luckily, Sherman is a football cornerback, so he was back at the beginning of the 2015 season.
15. Madden 2001
Cover Athlete: Eddie George
Curse Outcome: Fumbling machine
Most consider the Eddie George season in 2000 as a success and an antithesis of the Madden Curse, but we disagree. While his statistics are fine, and he was still considered good by most analysts at this point, there were two major problems that would derail his career.
The first was his fumbling. It doesn’t matter what era we're playing in, NFL coaches do not take fumbling lightly. While there is some game management that comes with interceptions, fumbling feels like a pure mistake by a professional athlete. He fumbled eight times, which ended up being a career high. The Titans lost six of his fumbles.
Meanwhile, George also became insanely inefficient this season. He rushed for just three yards per carry. That’s basically the production of a third-string running back normally. It resulted in George rushing for fewer than 1,000 yards for the only time in his Oilers/Titans career.
The year before his Madden cover, George rushed more than 400 times during the season. Many say that a running back who goes for over 400 attempts in a season usually has a bad season right after that.
14. Madden 08
Cover Athlete: Vince Young
Curse Outcome: Missed a game, was benched, and had 17 INTs
This is where the Madden Curse takes a turn from “rough” to “devastating.” Vince Young went from an up-and-coming star who took college success and made it into NFL prowess. Young wasn’t a statistical anomaly like other young quarterbacks before him, but he was winning games, and that goes a longer way in the national media than anything else for quarterbacks. Then, Young went onto the cover of Madden 08.
The relationship between Titans head coach Jeff Fisher and Young started to go sour this season. Fisher benched Young during the preseason for breaking team rules. He never revealed what the team rules were, but it was a strange situation that brought negative headlines to Tennessee.
During the season, Young suffered a quadriceps injury that caused him to miss a game and a half and put the Titans in a precarious position as they were desperately fighting for a playoff position. He did return after just one full missed game, but the rest of the season didn’t go great despite some wins.
Young finished the season with just nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions. That’s about as bad a TD-INT ratio as any player you’ll see. Most quarterbacks who get a chance to throw just nine touchdowns are not given the opportunity to throw for 17 interceptions. Young’s career didn’t last long, but prior to his Madden cover, most thought he would be around for a few decades.
13. Madden 11
Cover Athlete: Drew Brees
Curse Outcome: Threw 22 interceptions
Drew Brees was considered the king of consistency. He has the two greatest seasons in history when it comes to completion percentage (74.4% in 2018 and 74.3% in 2019) and five of the top 10. Brees is the best quarterback in history when it comes to getting the ball into his receivers' hands. He holds multiple records there.
That’s why a season where he got intercepted 22 times is so widely considered an outlier that it has to be the result of a curse. He threw interceptions on 3.1% of his throws when it was 2.3% the year prior. Brees was clearly trying to force things that weren’t necessary for a New Orleans Saints team trying to hold onto their Super Bowl contention.
From 2008 to 2012, Brees led the league in touchdowns in four of five seasons. The one season he didn’t was the season he was on the cover of Madden. He still had 33 touchdowns, but the fact that he led the league in every other season over that five-year span is wild.
This was also the season after the Super Bowl win. It was an epic time for New Orleans. They could ignore a few flaws if the team was good in the playoffs again. It didn’t really work out that way. The Saints were massive favorites against a 7-9 Seahawks team that many didn’t think deserved a playoff spot, but thanks to a BeastQuake run where Marshawn Lynch broke multiple tackles, the Saints went home early.
12. Madden 2000
Cover Athlete: Dorsey Levens
Curse Outcome: Leg injuries fester
Okay, so this is a technicality. There were multiple games in the late 90s that had different covers for their European editions (and some games had different ones in places like Asia as well), and Madden was no different this year. While John Madden showed up on the cover of the game for Americans, Green Bay Packers running back Dorsey Levens showed up for those buying the game across the pond.
This was the rare case where Madden was putting someone on the cover after a major injury. Levens suffered a broken fibula in 1998, but he had some flashes at the end of the season that made him a worthy gamble for the cover. He was expected to return to full health in 1999.
While Levens only missed two games in 1999, he wasn’t the same guy he was before the leg injury. He suffered multiple knee injuries during the season, which only did more damage to his effectiveness. He lost a career-high five fumbles that season, and the Packers were looking towards the future.
By the next season, Levens wasn’t even at the top of the depth chart anymore. He was supplanted by Ahman Green, who, to be fair, had an amazing career with the Packers. Levens would hang on to be a backup for the Eagles and Giants until 2004, but he was never remotely as good as he was when Madden put him on the cover.
11. Madden 09
Cover Athlete: Brett Favre
Curse Outcome: Jets saga ends with biceps injury
Ah, the Brett Favre cover boy fiasco. Madden tried to steer away from the Madden Curse a little bit in 2008 and honor a player who was at this point universally beloved (imagine the damage this man has done to his legacy). While the whole retirement nonsense got old, most people still wanted to celebrate the NFL’s ironman. Favre was a treasure in Green Bay and for the NFL as a whole.
Then, he forced his way to the New York Jets. It was an ugly exit from the Packers, where Favre called coach Mike McCarthy in June to ask to return. The Packers said no multiple times, and they even offered him a $25 million marketing contract to stay retired, but he forced his way back into the NFL.
Eventually, he was traded to the New York Jets, and Madden designers were forced to hastily change the cover. What was once an honor to a fan favorite was now a cover athlete who was definitely in the twilight of his career. Now, there are awkwardly two covers for Madden 09.
The Jets saga went terribly. Favre was really good to start, but in true Jets fashion, he fell apart at the end. A torn bicep would probably have had Favre sit out if he weren’t sitting on this ironman streak. The Jets fell just short of a playoff berth, and Favre went to Minnesota the next season.
10. Madden 06
Cover Athlete: Donovan McNabb
Curse Outcome: Hernia, thumb, and groin injuries end his season
Donovan McNabb is a player who has split NFL fans for his entire career. Many say he was one of the best quarterbacks of his generation. He was a great mix of athleticism and pure firepower. He drove winning under head coach Andy Reid, and he could put the playbook to work.
When Madden tapped him to be on the cover, McNabb was at the end of his most dominant run. The Eagles were always a threat in the playoffs, and with Terrell Owens on the roster, they were near the top of Super Bowl favorites. McNabb was looking to take that next step into legends lore.
Then, just about everything broke down. McNabb suffered a hernia early in the season, then a sore thumb started to hurt his throwing motion. He played through these clearly painful injuries, but he was finally taken out in the middle of November. When trying to tackle Cowboys safety Roy Williams after an interception, he suffered a groin injury that ended his season.
This isn’t even talking about the major controversy surrounding Terrell Owens. After playing together in the Super Bowl, Owens' contract demands became must-see TV. His press conference in a driveway, where he did situps shirtless, was probably the most prominent distraction we can think of. What an insane season for McNabb and the Eagles.
9. Madden 12
Cover Athlete: Peyton Hillis
Curse Outcome: Multiple hamstring injuries and strep throat
Today, Peyton Hillis might be the poster boy for the Madden Curse. It’s about the only football-related poster he’s getting on at this point. Not many can name the major accomplishments of Hillis’s career outside of being on the cover of Madden 12.
This was one of the first years where EA Sports allowed the fans to vote on the cover athlete. This was done in a bracket-style vote, so Hillis was downing opposing players every week. Were voters truly trying to see representation for the Cleveland Browns, or was this a joke? This guy overcame Ray Rice, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers (coming off a Super Bowl MVP), and Michael Vick to win the competition.
It doesn’t matter at this point. Hillis will live in infamy for being on the cover. It’s not like he was terrible the year he made it onto the cover. Hillis had 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2010.
It didn’t take long for it to all fall apart. Hillis tried to renegotiate his contract off the hype of his breakout season, but the Browns refused to give him the contract he wanted. Hillis then had a strange and frustrating season, including his agent telling him to sit out a game with strep throat. Hillis only played 10 games that season, and he never played for the Browns again after that season.
8. Madden 07
Cover Athlete: Shaun Alexander
Curse Outcome: End of a truly dominant run
Shaun Alexander was as dominant as a running back could be in the early 2000s, and it helped him get one of the rare non-quarterback MVPs of this era. He was a monster in 2005, and that’s how he secured the cover of Madden 2007. He was a veteran who looked like he could keep his dominant run going. Unfortunately for him, an injured foot would really hurt his current and future production.
Alexander suffered a broken foot in Week 3. He didn’t return to action until the middle of November, and he never truly recovered from the injury until the next season. He played through it, but his results varied.
The next season, Alexander broke his wrist in Week 1. He never broke 1,000 yards again, and his career was completely over three years after showing up on the Madden cover. This was a guy who was on his way to a Hall of Fame career, but one injury derailed everything.
Was it all due to the curse? It's hard to say. We can definitely blame the ho-hum status of his 2006 season on the curse. This was a prominent example of the curse at the time, taking an MVP from dominant to largely unavailable.
7. Madden 2003
Cover Athlete: Marshall Faulk
Curse Outcome: Missed two games and lost his spark
Marshall Faulk to this day is one of the best athletes at any position in the game of football. His performance is the reason the Greatest Show on Turf was as popular as it was. He was more than just an every-down back, he was the straw that stirred the drink for the St. Louis Rams.
After signing a new seven-year, $43.95 million contract prior to the 2002 season, Faulk was looking to continue his reign as the top running back. That season was the beginning of the end.
Faulk missed two games in 2002, and the Rams went 7-9. They went from a Super Bowl favorite to missing the playoffs just months after being on the wrong end of one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets in history.
Faulk never it his previous heights. He never rushed for 1,000 yards again in a season, and he just wasn’t nearly as effective as a two-way player. He held onto his career until the end of the 2005 season, where he retired as a backup.
6. Madden 17
Cover Athlete: Rob Gronkowski
Curse Outcome: Hamstring and back injuries
Rob Gronkowski is one of the greatest weapons of this era. Tom Brady’s tight end was a beast on the football field. He was as big as a linebacker with wide receiver speed. It was widely known that teams couldn’t figure out who to put on him to cover him every play. Did they put their most athletic linebacker on him, or did they need to upgrade the speed with a safety or cornerback? If they went with a linebacker, they were often too slow, and if they went with a cornerback, they were often too weak.
That’s all to say that teams would throw the kitchen sink at Gronkowski, and taking on the kitchen sink 50 times a week takes a toll on one's body. That all came to fruition in 2016, the year Gronk was the cover athlete on Madden 17.
It started with a hamstring injury that forced him to miss the beginning of the season. The injury lingered for the first month of the year before he started to look like himself in October. Then, in November, Seahawks safety Earl Thomas hit him so hard in the chest that he was checked for a punctured lung. It ended up being a pulmonary contusion, which kept him out another week. Upon his return, Gronk suffered a herniated disc in his back in Week 12, and that ended his season.
Injuries would continue to limit Gronkowski’s supreme abilities, but he was still mostly effective for the rest of his career. This year, however, the Patriots were forced to play in the playoffs without him.
5. Madden 2002
Cover Athlete: Daunte Culpepper
Curse Outcome: Season-ending knee injury
The first example where we really considered the traditional “Madden Curse” as we know it today is Daunte Culpepper. While there were cursed outcomes before him (and even one technically worse than his), Culpepper’s cover is when the “curse” talk started to become a thing.
Culpepper and his connection to Randy Moss took the league by storm. We talk about how insane Moss was back with the Minnesota Vikings, but he needed a big armed quarterback to get him the ball. Culpepper had a rocket launcher connected to his shoulder. On top of that, his incredible athleticism kept defenses honest.
By the time Culpepper graced the Madden cover, he was up there with Peyton Manning and Brett Favre as the best quarterbacks in the league. Then, he looked like a completely different person. Truly, it looked like someone else was playing in Culpepper’s body. He had 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions through 13 weeks. Then, his season ended on a major knee injury.
The Vikings went from a Super Bowl contender to one of the biggest disappointments in the league, and Culpepper’s knee would become a constant topic of conversation around his career.
4. Madden 19
Cover Athlete: Antonio Brown
Curse Outcome: Week 17 benching starts the downfall
It is important to have context for the Madden Curse, or some of these rankings might not make sense. Antonio Brown is a perfect example of this. His numbers were insane during his cover year. He caught more than 100 balls for just under 1,300 yards and a career-high 15 touchdowns. Brown was electric for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
However, he missed a game, and things spiraled insanely quickly. The Steelers suspended/benched Brown for the last game of the season. He reportedly argued with Ben Roethlisberger all week and refused to suit up for practice, so the Steelers coaching staff led by Mike Tomlin decided to go forth without his services.
Things hit a fever pitch that offseason, and Brown requested a trade. He was eventually moved to the Raiders, but he was the ultimate nightmare and didn’t play an official snap there. He complained about his helmet size, threatening to retire if he couldn’t wear his desired helmet, gave himself frostbite on his foot from a cryotherapy session, complained about the fines associated with him missing practice, reportedly yelled at general manager Mike Mayock, and then he demanded his release after the Raiders voided the guarantees in his contract.
Brown would play just one game the next season after sexual assault allegations surfaced. His life and career would continue to be bizarre and, frankly, sad. He was one of the great talents in the game and now he’s constantly in trouble with the law.
3. Madden 99
Cover Athlete: Garrison Hearst
Curse Outcome: Missed two seasons with avascular necrosis
The very first player on the cover of a Madden video game is not one of the legends of the 1990s. It wasn’t Emmitt Smith or Deion Sanders or maybe a great quarterback like Steve Young or Dan Marino. It was actually San Francisco 49ers running back Garrison Hearst. Of all the players who have been on the U.S. version of the game, is Hearst the least known player to ever grace the cover?
It shouldn’t be that way. Hearst looked like he was going to be the next great running back in San Francisco. He did that again in 1998, the year he was on the cover. He broke 1,500 yards and added seven touchdowns. He broke 49ers franchise records that season. We didn’t even know about curses at this point, so we just assumed everything was going as it should.
Then, in one of the most gruesome injuries we’ve seen, Hearst broke his ankle in the Divisional Round game against the Atlanta Falcons. His foot got caught in the Georgia Dome turf, and that was it for him. Doctors thought his playing career might be over, and Hearst was left on the 49ers roster for two years while he recovered.
Hearst suffered from circulatory problems, which cut off blood to the area and caused bones to literally die, a prognosis called Avascular Necrosis. It’s the same condition that forced Bo Jackson to retire. Despite so much time away, Hearst finally returned to football in 2001, and he was still pretty good. However, he would only last a few more seasons before retirement.
2. Madden 25
Cover Athlete: Christian McCaffrey
Curse Outcome: Missed almost the entire season with various injuries
We might be a little too close to this one as it just happened, but the Christian McCaffrey cover curse might be one of the worst we’ve ever seen. Just think about how terribly his season went. The 49ers made it seem like he was a game-time decision for Week 1 on Monday Night Football. It was to the point where just about everyone made him the number-one overall pick in their fantasy drafts and kept him in their lineups for Week 1.
McCaffrey was dealing with calf and Achilles injuries, and things ended up going in the wrong direction. He was placed on IR prior to the 49ers’ Week 2 game, and he didn’t return until Week 10. So, he went from a game-time decision in Week 1 to missing more than two months.
And when he returned, he didn’t last very long. In his fourth game back from injury, McCaffrey suffered a PCL injury. Kyle Shanahan said that it would be six weeks before he could return, meaning his season was over.
CMC went from the most impactful non-QB in the league to spending the entire season on the sidelines. This is the Madden Curse in a nutshell. It can derail any player, and now we have to hope this was just a one-season issue and it doesn’t leak into his 2025 statistics.
1. Madden 2004
Cover Athlete: Michael Vick
Curse Outcome: Broken leg
This was the peak of the Madden Curse, when the whispers about its existence became national talking points. Michael Vick was on the cover of Madden 2004, but he didn’t even make it to the start of the regular season before the Curse took its form. Vick suffered a fractured right fibula in a preseason game and missed the first 11 games of the season.
Obviously, the Atlanta Falcons basically couldn’t recover from the injury, and Vick returned to a team that wasn’t playing for much. Doug Johnson and Kurt Kittner went 2-10 in the highlight reel’s absence. Vick was the Falcons' offense, and they did not have the right options on this team to back him up.
Meanwhile, things kept falling below expectations for the rest of Vick’s career. He would miss two years after a dog fighting arrest. The Falcons moved on from him, and he went to the Eagles. He saw some success there, but it was never what he was in Atlanta.
Was that all the Curse? Who’s to say, but 2003 was definitely a year to forget for Vick.