As you may know, Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers has graced the cover of MADDEN 10 along with Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals. For the past decade, some of the top players in the NFL have been asked to be on the cover of the Madden football video game and majority of them have blundered that season with injuries, trades, benchings or flat out bad seasons. Some say there is no correlation whatsoever while others truly believe in the Madden Jinx.
Troy Polamalu Out 3-6 Weeks
Polamalu suffered a sprained MCL against the Tennessee Titans in his first game of the season when Alge Crumpler landed on his left knee. David Webner, M.D., was able to give a very great explanation of Polamalu’s MCL injury and his possible recovery time.
Troy Polamalu is very well the definition of what an NFL strong safety should be. With his play making ability and attitude, he could very well attempt to return to the playing field too soon. The Steelers will have to be without Polamalu for a month or two, and the cover of MADDEN 10 still has another player to tend to.
Larry Fitzgerald Week 1
Although Larry Fitzgerald did not suffer any injury in week 1, he left the game with 71 yards on 6 receptions with a touchdown. Not to say that 71 yards and a touchdown aren’t great stats for week 1 of the season, but that doesn’t compare much to what some other receivers did in week 1. For example, Reggie Wayne who had 162 yards and a TD. As a number one receiver, it is expected that you will gain around 100 yards with a TD per game. Maybe Fitzgerald is on the decline after being on the cover of MADDEN 10.
With 16 weeks left in the season, anything is possible. I don’t wish harm on any player in the league, but the inevitable injury awaiting Fitzgerald is just that. See you next week Larry.
Thanks to deelovely_67 for the picture of Troy Polamalu.
Pretty soon no players are going to want to be on the cover of Madden!
I thought the same thing, but it seems that year after year someone decides to put their career on the line in more ways than one.
Could these injuries happen because people play harder against Madden cover players or Madden cover players think they’re now “elite” because they’re on the cover and slack off just a bit leading to injuries?
Normally, I’d say correlation does not imply causation, but year after year the curse strikes. It’ll be interesting to see if multiple players dampens the curse’s effect.
With the amount of injuries that occur in the NFL I want to say that there is no correlation at all, but I can’t help but believe the hype and read into the evidence of Coverboy’s past.
I think it’s in the back of every players mind once they get on the cover, leading to the being over aware and nervous which results in suffering the injury on the field.