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There is one problem with the theory of the ‘Madden Curse’ though. It simply isn’t true anymore. Consider this; of the last seven players that have been on the cover only one has missed any real time due to injury, and another has endured a poor season. The one injury was Rob Gronkowski; Brady’s favorite target that graced the cover last season. However, Gronkowski had been dealing with injury problems in previous years due to concussion, knee, back and arm injuries.
The other player that endured the poor season was former Browns’ running back Peyton Hillis. Hillis landed on the cover after a tremendous season that gave him his first 1,000 yard season (1,177 rushing yards to be exact). While the next year he rushed for just 587, and suffered from some injuries. However, it is hard to blame his season on the curse when that was his only season anywhere near 1,000 yards. In fact, Hillis had just 1,655 rush yards in his other six seasons combined. Hard to say the “Madden Curse” robbed a guy that never really had the talent to rob.
Furthermore, five of the last seven players all had very productive seasons. The following players were, in order, on the cover of Madden since 2010; Drew Brees, Peyton Hillis (2011), Calvin Johnson (2012), Adrian Peterson (2013), Richard Sherman (2014), Odell Beckham Jr. (2015), Rob Gronkowski (2016). Going through each individual season Brees passed for 4,620 yards and 33 touchdowns, Calvin Johnson set a receiving yard record with 1,964 yards to go with 122 catches, Peterson ran for 1,266 yards and 10 touchdowns, Sherman played every game had eight passes defensed and four interceptions, and Beckham Jr. had 96 catches for 1,450 yards in just his third season. None of those stats speak to a ‘curse’and to suggest otherwise means someone isn’t paying attention.