the Madden Curse is something I really am starting to doubt...
Drew Brees is a great example. It's so easy to blame his 20+ interceptions on the curse. But looking at stats, Brees got sacked 25 times, his most sacks in a Saints uniform. If you look at the Saints roster from last season and then this season, you see they were dumb enough to cut half of their O-line that got them to the Super Bowl, and Brees is not that great under pressure, and most of his problems this season was that, no protection when he needed it the most.
The curse also is the blame for Barry Sanders retiring after his small picture was on the cover of one of the games. Wrong again...Barry Sanders would have retired no matter what even if he wasn't on the cover of the game. Do some research about Ford and the Lions management and you get the picture. Barry Sanders was 'tired' of getting patted on the back loss after loss because the Lions were more worried about him breaking Payton's records than building a team around him.
Anyone remember that RB for the 'Niners named Hearst? His career was injury and fumble riddled after he was on the cover, but people forget he was OLD. He had already been playing 3-4 years before he went to SF. Average career for a running back is five years. When the Niners lost Steve Young, they had little to no offensive line, when they were running the ball every down over working their old work horse Hearst. Actually they were lucky he lasted as long as he did after Young went down, cause their O-line was terrible with Garcia under center.
Ray Lewis actually had a good season after he was on the cover. I don't see how that one is argued. Can't record an interception every season as a linebacker.
Hell, I think Favre is a good example. Bad season the year he was on the cover, yet he had that out standing the year in Minnesota. If he was truly cursed he should have had bad stats in his first year with the Vikes.
The problem is, when they get on the cover, people think they are going to out do the career season that landed them on the cover, and most the time they can't. Drew Brees had the best passing records a quarterback could dream about in 2009, and he did it with average class C receivers. There is NO WAY in hell a quarterback throwing the ball 400 times is going to hit 70.6% completion percentage or better every year. With all the picks last season, he still had 68.3% percentage rate. Not many (including Peyton Manning) can do that with all the talent around them, and Brees has some of the worst pass dropping average receivers I've had to watch for an elite team..
This is what all the experts ignore about the Madden cover, cause they want to use the curse as a simple excuse of the problem, but if Favre could go from his bad year in NY to a career year the next season, then the curse is a joke.
