The Madden NFL Curse.. 

all 4 madden cover holders from madden 17 to 20 are in the super bowl this year

Plot twist: The curse of Patrick Mahomes is Jackson Mahomes.

The real issue that is highlighted by this is how short most NFL careers really are. And living up to expectations after having a personal best season is an incredibly hard thing to do both mentally and physically. Especially as teams learn to plan around and stop you and your body starts to take more hits as a hits since you are a much higher usage player.

Actually, Erik Williams was the first victim. He was on the background of the cover during the 94 season. That season, he suffered season ending injuries in a car accident. Although he made a full recovery, he wasn't the same player after that, and it's believed by Michael Irvin to have cost him a Hall of Fame induction.

Richard Sherman was affected too. His team lost a Super Bowl in a embarrassing way. He had an Achilles injury and was out the rest of the season and dropped in performance except 2019 but they did blow a 10 lead in the Super Bowl to chiefs

EA: Hey do you want to be on the cover of Madden? Player: So your asking me if I want a career ending injury

The Antonio Brown segment is comedy gold 🤣🤣🤣

Honestly the Antonio Brown situation as a Steelers fan I think the curse only coated what was already wrong. The real curse started when Vontez Burfict slammed AB with his shoulder pad in the wildcard matchup om January 2016. After that he just wasn't the same. Didn't really smile, laugh, talk to ben about routes and touchdowns plus throwing Gatorade jugs and throwing tempers over nothing. He was already cursed before he was on the cover of madden XD

"Who just retires out of nowhere at the peak of his career" Andrew Luck: hi, hello

Madden cover curse: Mike Vick: goes to prison a decade later *madden cover curse*

In the NFL right now, Brady and Mahomes are the only two that survived the curse, And guess who are on the 22' cover?!

I am unconvinced that Lamar was affected. Concussions happen all the time and didn't affect him coming into the season. Errybody on my team was off catching the coof

“The curse hit gronkowski hard and he would never retu-.” “Imma stop you right there.”

The Madden Curse skipped Tom Brady 😭

I really don’t know much about football but my theory is that the players who make it on the cover are the ones who have already put a lot of stress on their body to get to where they are and probably continue the habit of over working themselves in both practices and in games to maintain their stats leading to a greater injury risk. Also the opposing team might come after them harder than anyone else knowing that they pose the biggest risk of scoring. The nfl already has a high injury percentage even compared to other sports so I just think it’s possible that the ones on the covers the players striving to be the best are seeing the worst of these injuries.

Rip John Madden

The curse just said to Mahomes. "Hey how's it going" then walked to Lamar.

Dude I got the shivers when the cracking sound happend

As an OSU fan (we’re Barry Sanders went to college) I think the reason Barry left is because the lions only made the playoffs only once with him. He was also a franchise tag so he couldn’t leave. He probably wanted to be traded and when the lions said no he just said I quit.

I like how the curse for some of these is just "a few years later he got older, injured, and eventually retired." Yeah...isn't that basically everyone?

No one’s going to talk about how AB made the super with Tom Brady

the cover athletes from 17,18,19 and 20 are all playing in the super bowl this year

fun fact:Barry Sanders really retired because he was on the Detroit lions and he didn’t like that he was on a bad team so he decided would leave the lions to try to get on a better team but he failed to get on a better team

When you think about it people were at the top of their career's more than likely when they're featured on the cover , so really when you look at it they're careers only have one way to go and that's is down

Vontaze Burfict killed Antonio’s head I swear

Barry didn't retire because of the curse, He retired because he wanted to save his body, and was tired of losing

There’s no such thing as a madden curse.. most of the players that have been on a madden cover had or still have amazing careers. The only ones that fell apart were Peyton Hillis, Vince Young, and I wouldn’t even say Richard Sherman because that cover really should’ve been the entire Legion of Boom defense.

Other curses you could consider: 2013 Calvin Johnson - Lost in the Playoffs in 2014, He never returned to the playoffs 2015 Richard Sherman - Super bowl loss in 2015 2018 Tom Brady - Super bowl loss in 2018 2020 Patrick Mahomes - Super bowl loss in 2021 2021 Lamar Jackson - Injured not only in '21 but the next season as well, Putting him on IR until Fall 2023 2024 Josh Allen - As of December 2023, The Bills have a 6-6 record with an unstable looking Allen, Far from the 9-3 record of last year, Could miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018

The ankle injury didn't force Garrison Hearst into retirement, he was forced to miss the 1999 and 2000 seasons. He came back in 2001 and made the Pro Bowl, also winning Comeback Player of The Year.

This has killed my dream of being the cover person also now nobody is gonna be on the covers not even for millions of dollars

Growing up watching Barry Sanders in the 90's I was surprised he left the game when he did. Reports from ESPN back then was Detroit refused to trade him. His desire was to win. He didn't care about records or celebrating touchdowns. The Lions were not in position to compete for the super bowl so he retired. He was done losing. The Dolphins tried to get him in a trade and Detroit refused.

Poor Vince. He was so persistent but the curse wins every time 😔

Maybe Barry just didn’t want to play anymore 😂

The curse to Mahomes was “team forgets how to play football in the Super Bowl” Megatrons was keep getting hurt with horrible franchise

I’m a Bengals, Seahawks, Saints, and minor Ravens fan, so some of these do hit hard, but at heart, I’m a Saints fan as a Southerner, so Drew Brees’ injury really hurt me

This happens in football / soccer / fifa, its crazy too

I think the curse isn't really a curse. I think it's just the fact that the pressure and everything about making the cover gets to their heads and worries the players which affects how they play

Damn, i did not know there was this much evidence

The best cover athlete this whole time was probably Brady he just won the Super Bowl last year

Damn the curse really didn’t let up on Vince Young

u forgot to mention the massive blow AB took that knock him out on impact and after that hit is when his pesonality started to change thats what lead to problems in steelers looker room i dont blame the curse i think it honistly might be medical he sufferd changes to his brain chemistry which caused personality changes but thats just AB the rest of the players was the curse IN MY OPINION

I think the reason this coincidence happens is when an NFL player gets on the madden game they get confident, they feel on top of the world, since they are on the madden cover it means they were picked for being one of the best. That is why I conclude that the NFL curse is not real and it affects people on the cover of madden because they make dangerous decisions in games because of their supposed greatness. Also 74 percent is not good considering most of the athletes all the way from madden 17 are still fine today.

AB’s life changed after the Burfict hit not the Madden cover. PS the helmet he wore that day saved his life. I’d wanna wear it too

That Madden 09 guy must have been sooooooo paranoid every game

Like how the intro song to madden 21 says, “someone put me out cuz I’m on fire”

Side note about Hearst, it’s crazy how vital he was to the 49ers organization during the late 90s to early 2000s. With the exception of his last year, (No, I want to forget that he played for Denver at one point.) the 49ers averaged around 12 wins per season during a time where the Greatest Show on Turf was at its peak, and that Falcons’ team that still had Jamal Anderson and Chris Chandler playing out of their MINDS.

There is a similar thing in Football (Soccer) in the Premiership each month the "Manager of the Month" award is given, almost every time, the manager that gets the award then loses the next game (not every time, but enough that its described as a curse)

This is the most bogus thing I've ever heard but I love it!

C’mon Man! It’s one of the most violent sports, injuries happening are only a matter of time!

This sounds like a horror story that I don’t wanna listen to but my brain telling me to but my eyes: HECK NAH

Hahaha 🤣 the “Jagwires” 😂

Yo.... I've never known about this. And now I'm SHOOKETH..

I’m surprised they haven’t tried to pick Christian mccafrey for the cover

Madden 2021: ehhh ima add everyone

People watching this video in February 2021: “Man, that Antonio Brown is really messed up.” Me in January 2022: “You have no idea what’s coming.”

It happened to Mahomes in the 3rd or 4th week, he injured his knee after he got put on the Madden 20 cover.

Another thing, the Legion of Boom was actually the cover on Madden 15, not just Sherman. LOB got destroyed pretty shortly after that.

Barry Sanders was also on the Madden 25 cover for PS3 and XBOX 360, cuz I have it And also, to answer your question on who would retire at the peak of their career Michael Jordan, 1993

The lesson is: don't be the cover player for a Madden game. Ever. If you want to play well in the NFL, don't be the cover art player. PS. One thought, is EA or someone trying to screw the player over after he's on the Madden NFL cover art?

When I was younger I actually believed in good luck, bad luck, and curse but now I don't it's just all in your head. I believe that players just need to just say that they are on the cover of the game but don't let it get to you. If you let it go to your head and think everything is good but it can come around being bad. It's just your bad day that's what's going on. They should've just stayed positive and not let it get to themselves.

They had Brady on there didn’t they?? And he won his 7th but ig it’s just Tom freaking Brady 🤦‍♂️

This happens to every single player on the FIFA cover too

I think Mahomes had some efects from the cures early in the season losing to the chargers. Then just going into a losing streek.

This is maddening!

"The world, was ready to watch another....." *literally just America*

The reason Brady wasn’t affected was because In family guy god was a huge patriots fan so he couldn’t hurt his precious

Tom Brady dropped a game winning trick pass during Super Bowl LII against the Eagles. Some goat lmao

I will never forget watching that Bulldog smoke the Jets for 98 yards! That was game one of a really heartbreaking season, Them Boys got us.

Me thinking the curse is gone since nothing happened to lamar in the regular season until he got an concussion in playoffs

don`t forget about Mahomes getting that concussion in the playoff game

In a way it got favre too. That season he played for the jets he went to shnit the second half of the season because he tore his bicep tendon and they went from having a really good season to finishing 9-7 and missing the playoffs. Granted he had surgery and came back the next year and almost went to the Superbowl with the Vikings but had problems out of that bicep tendon the next year.

Nfl and nba channels both fire

Actually, Vontaze Burfict hit Antonio and caused brain things with him.

I think that Antonio was affected so much by the curse, that the curse just took a break to rest when Mahomes was on the cover lol

Barry Sabders did not retire because of madden. He retired because of the losing culture of the Lions

I still remember when Michael Vick broke his leg in that preseason game that's when I knew the Madden Curse is real

The madden curse wasn’t real until everyone believed it was, that’s how it works.

Okay, that Vince Young story is insane

i rember when you made a video about the nba 2k curse

Now Brady got a whole ass divorce

3:03 “who just retires out of nowhere at the peak of their career” Umm.. Andrew Luck? 😂😂

"Forced into retirement" Aged like milk.

Barry Sanders even juked out the madden curse 😂😂

Not the ref running the same exact speed as Barry 💀

That won’t stop my dream from trying my best to try to make it to the nfl ✊

Tom Brady and Patrick mahomes: that’s cute

While Calvin Johnson didn’t get injured, he did have a rule named after him (not in a good way) and also retired early like Barry. And spending his entire career with a mediocre Lions team could be considered a curse in itself.

Barry Sanders didn’t want to play for the lions but they refused to trade or release him so he just retired I think

It's the fact how Vince kept going and going with all these injuries

Lamar Jackson wasn’t cursed, he made the playoffs and had a bad play that hit him a concussion. Concussions are common in the NFL and the players usually come back fine

My madden game literally crashed while I was watching (listening) to this video.

I'm glad the curse spared Patrick Mahomes

I have a hard time believing Barry Sanders retired because of the madden curse 😂

yo wassup touchdown we need a bunch of vids throughout the season like u did for the nba

2nd time watching this and i feel ike the players are just exited to then they try to be better, but thats when it happens

It could just be that people are getting picked to be the cover at their peak, leaving only downhill for the future

antonio brown wasnt banned from the NFL forever as u can see he got signed on the patriots a bit after leaving raiders and then he got signed with the buccs somewhere after the season with the patriots

Eddie George delt with knee injury and in the following years was decreasing in talent, Brett Favre sucked after his time on the Jets and delt with women claiming he sent bad pics, Calvin had a great year except for TDs (only 5) but his team sucked and from there on out he played 3 more season and slowly decreased in talent and ended his carrer because of how bad his team was, Richard Sherman broke or fractured his arm in the playoffs and because of that they lost the super bowl, Brady hurt his hand in the days leading up to the super bowl and was constantly dealing with media drama all year, and Mahomes hurt his leg but still came out of it good. So everyone was effected some sorta way. Calvin, George, and Mahomes where probably the least effected.

Well I would argue that Richard Sherman’s team lost in the SB in the most embarrassing way.. Also for Calvin Johnson he is already cursed by playing for the Detroit Lions..

“As the collective consciousness believes and thinks so are they”