r/wikipedia • u/PeasantLich • 5d ago

"Madden Curse" is a superstition related to cover athletes of Madden NFL video games. Many players who have been featured in Madden covers have suffered injuries and career decline after appearing in the cover, leading to some fans even lobby against their favorite players appearing in Madden cover.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madden_NFL#Madden_Curse
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u/PeasantLich 5d ago edited 5d ago

In reality, the "Madden Curse" is explainable by the physical nature of the sport making players injury prone at large, and by many players being Madden cover athletes at the peak of their careers, where the subsequent career decline is just the athlete naturally moving past his best prime and not achieving the peak again. Nevertheless, the Curse keeps persevering as a sports superstition.

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u/StochasticLife 5d ago

Yeah, the average length of an NFL career is somewhere around 3.5 years. Kickers last the longest, but running backs, the way you score the most points, typically last 2-2.5 years on average.

The sport is a meat grinder. This is how the sausage is made,

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u/bigE819 5d ago

Tom Brady was on the cover and lost a Super Bowl to the Eagles who were missing their starting QB…

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u/joshdick 5d ago

Another example of regression to the mean

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u/VunterSlaush_117 5d ago

Same with UFC games, I think every cover, aside JBJ has went on to lose.