Madden NFL 21: What Is the Madden Curse?

There are many urban legends that surround the video game industry, but there are few that have managed to take on a life of their own quite like the “Madden Curse.” The so-called curse has had an impact on nearly every athlete to grace the cover of that year’s entry in Electronic Arts’ Madden NFL franchise. Sometimes the curse has a major impact on that particular athlete. Other times, it’s more marginal. Yet NFL fans and athletes put quite a bit of stock into it! As such, fans are often disappointed to hear about their favorite players making the cover, and that was certainly the case with this year’s cover athlete, Lamar Jackson.

The curse can be traced back to Madden NFL 99, the first entry in the series to replace namesake John Madden with a chosen cover athlete. That year, Garrison Hearst made the cover. Hearst suffered a broken ankle in the second round of the 1999 playoffs, and complications from surgery resulted in two missed seasons for the running back. Subsequent years would see other athletes suffer similar injuries, and bouts of bad luck. However, it wasn’t until ESPN The Magazine published an article about the curse in 2002 that it became a topic of conversation among sports and video game fans.

That particular article was written by Alyssa Roenigk, who coined the term “Madden Curse.” Since that article first saw print, fans have debated whether or not some injury might befall the cover athlete, or if the whole thing is mere coincidence. Last season, cover athlete Patrick Mahomes led the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super Bowl win, leading many fans to assume the curse has been broken. It should be noted that Mahomes did miss two games during the season due to a dislocated kneecap.

At the end of the day, it’s impossible to say whether or not the Madden Curse is real. Football is a very violent sport, and injuries come pretty frequently. The athletes that are chosen to grace the cover of Madden are typically selected after a big season, which means expectations tend to be high for those particular players. As such, those players are under even more pressure than normal. There’s also an element of confirmation bias. The Madden Curse is so well known at this point, that fans actively look for things that can be attributed to the curse. Patrick Mahomes threw two interceptions in the Super Bowl. Had the Chiefs not rallied back, those interceptions and his prior injury might have been attributed to the curse.

There will never be a clear-cut answer on whether or not the Madden Curse truly exists. No matter how many seasons go by, fans will continue to debate its existence, and watch for it to rear its ugly head. It will likely always be a part of the game’s culture.

Do you believe in the Madden Curse? Did Patrick Mahomes bring the curse to an end? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!