Thursday, August 14, 2008

Madden Curse

I just read a great article on the "Madden Curse." For those who don't know, every year a new edition of the football video game Madden NFL is realeased, and for ten or so years it has featured an NFL star on the cover. Over the years, some of the players appearing on the cover have gone on to be injured or have bad seasons. A rumor has grown that the cover brings a curse to any player on it, plaguing them with injuries, bad seasons, or other maladies.

Luke Plunkett writing on Kotaku has written a great breakdown of who's been on the cover every year and exactly what did or did not happen to them during that season. My favorite paragraph is this one:

...[the curse is] all based on hearsay, selective statistic cherry-picking and misinformation. When you look at two key factors - the NFL's injury rate and the actual performance of all twelve cover stars in the year they appeared on the box - you'll see the curse is nothing but a load of baloney.
That some good skeptical thinking there, something I don't normally see crossed over from my video game sites. But, then, he's an Aussie. What else would one expect?

5 comments:

ben said...

So, the guy on the cover is "the best player in football," or something similar, presumably. The go to guy, the guy who makes the best plays most likely because he takes the most risks, and sooner or later they catch up with him.

That's my theory anyway.

Ben said...

Hey! You're not me!

ben said...

or am I? ha..haha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Flavin said...

I, for one, am thoroughly creeped out.

Ben said...

Too bad there isn't a way to say, click the name and figure out who is who...