The Madden curse is a football conspiracy that goes back years, since the game was first released in 1988. The game features a top tier NFL player on the cover every year, this year’s cover star is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. The Madden curse can be summed up to a theory where the player on the cover of the game will have something unfortunate happen to them the following season. In this case, Mahomes was recently injured in week 6 versus the Denver Broncos, the Chiefs’ divisional rival.

Mahomes isn’t the only player to experience this possible strange coincidence. Just a year prior, former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown hosted the cover of Madden 2019. Less than a year ago, Brown was considered a top 3 wide receiver in football. Fast forward to present day and he isn’t even in the league anymore. After a controversial summer from Brown, involving media drama, disrespecting coaches, and sexual assault allegations, he fell off only 8 months after being the Madden cover star.

“In all honesty, I believe in the Madden curse 100%,” said senior Peyton Tucker. “There’s no way that it could happen consistently year after year.”

Other examples of players who this has happened to are Peyton Hillis, Michael Vick, Marshall Faulk, Donovan Mcnabb, and Shaun Alexander (https://www.cbssports.com). Each one of these players were coming off of MVP status seasons when they were featured on the cover of Madden. The following season, they are were either facing season ending injuries, or did not hold up to their high standards from the prior year.

Despite that this is a widely believed theory, some fans are still not convinced. Many think it’s just injuries that the players get for trying too over achieve to uphold their standards.

”I don’t believe there is a Madden Curse, I think that the players put pressure on themselves to try and be the best at their position. Some of which crack under their self inflicted pressure,” said senior Caden Walker.

This conspiracy has been around for years, and will continue to be brought up over the years. Since the curse was established in 2001, only 19 years after the game was created (EA Games).