The Madden Curse Reality or Coincidence?

[RyanLeaf#1]

Injuries happen. I'm do not believe in curses at all, but the fact this happens very year is pretty alarming. That said this isn't like a Broken Leg or Sports Hernia, its a minor crack.

Also those teams of the madden cover victims do very poorly in that same season, which the Seahawks aren't.

They played Detroit, Arizona, and a NYG team that was coming off a huge win then hitting the road they were due for an L. Lets see how they play in Chicago.

[Guest]

Injuries happen. I'm do not believe in curses at all, but the fact this happens very year is pretty alarming. That said this isn't like a Broken Leg or Sports Hernia, its a minor crack.

Also those teams of the madden cover victims do very poorly in that same season, which the Seahawks aren't.

They played Detroit, Arizona, and a NYG team that was coming off a huge win then hitting the road they were due for an L. Lets see how they play in Chicago.

Its not like our gameplan is gonna be changed that much. Shaun wasn't running very well to begin with, and our offense finally seems t be rolling.

[RyanLeaf#1]

Injuries happen. I'm do not believe in curses at all, but the fact this happens very year is pretty alarming. That said this isn't like a Broken Leg or Sports Hernia, its a minor crack.

Also those teams of the madden cover victims do very poorly in that same season, which the Seahawks aren't.

They played Detroit, Arizona, and a NYG team that was coming off a huge win then hitting the road they were due for an L. Lets see how they play in Chicago.

Its not like our gameplan is gonna be changed that much. Shaun wasn't running very well to begin with, and our offense finally seems t be rolling.

I agree that the offense looks impressive, but now they will be facing a legit defense.

[Guest]

Injuries happen. I'm do not believe in curses at all, but the fact this happens very year is pretty alarming. That said this isn't like a Broken Leg or Sports Hernia, its a minor crack.

Also those teams of the madden cover victims do very poorly in that same season, which the Seahawks aren't.

They played Detroit, Arizona, and a NYG team that was coming off a huge win then hitting the road they were due for an L. Lets see how they play in Chicago.

Its not like our gameplan is gonna be changed that much. Shaun wasn't running very well to begin with, and our offense finally seems t be rolling.

I agree that the offense looks impressive, but now they will be facing a legit defense.

Living in Chicago they are legit, but i really, really think Deion Branch is gonna tear Tillman, who really isn't good IMO, apart.

[RyanLeaf#1]

Injuries happen. I'm do not believe in curses at all, but the fact this happens very year is pretty alarming. That said this isn't like a Broken Leg or Sports Hernia, its a minor crack.

Also those teams of the madden cover victims do very poorly in that same season, which the Seahawks aren't.

They played Detroit, Arizona, and a NYG team that was coming off a huge win then hitting the road they were due for an L. Lets see how they play in Chicago.

Its not like our gameplan is gonna be changed that much. Shaun wasn't running very well to begin with, and our offense finally seems t be rolling.

I agree that the offense looks impressive, but now they will be facing a legit defense.

Living in Chicago they are legit, but i really, really think Deion Branch is gonna tear Tillman, who really isn't good IMO, apart.

He may or may not do that but I cant see the Seahawks winning that game.

[IBleedNavyandOrange]

For it to be "reality" it should have more then a 50% success rate. It doesn't. Culpepper, Vick, McNabb and now Alexander. Doesn't explain Eddie George or Ray Lewis.

I don't believe in the 'curse' (though it's fun to joke about), but your logic is off... unless you have decided that an arbitrary occurance rate of 50% is what determines "reality."

But 50% is a goofy choice. Crashes happen on much less than 1% of airplane flights, but they are real; at the same time, probably 90%+ of kids under age 5 in this country believe in Santa Claus, but he isn't real.

Now, if you're talking about the statistical validity of the 'curse,' then you'd have to figure out what the percentage of season-ruining injuries is among all NFL players, and compare that to the percentage of season-ruining injuries among Madden coverboys. And/or analyze years of crappy underperformance. The problem you'd have with such a statistical analysis is that your sample (of Madden coverboys) is way too small to have any statistical significance. But you can pull some numbers out of your ass, at least, and make an argument.

For example, if 50% of the Madden coverboys have had crappy years (due to injury or just not living up to expectations and/or past performance levels), but only 25% of NFL players have season-ruining injuries and/or just generally suck, then yeah, we can say that the Madden coverboys have problems. But, as all my stats professors love to say, correlation is not causation. That is, maybe they aren't having crappy years/injuries because they're on the cover, but the other way around. That is to say, their reason for being on the cover is that the prior year they didn't have an injury, or they had a break-out (abnormal) season, and then they return to their regular form the next year.

Or, maybe other players hit the coverboys a bit harder, and pay more attention to stopping them.

[IBleedNavyandOrange]

That said this isn't like a Broken Leg or Sports Hernia, its a minor crack.

As someone with a medical background, it bugs me whenever I hear people make the fallacious distinction between a "fracture" and a "break," or a "crack" and a "break," because there is no difference between these injuries... a fracture is a crack is a break. This medical ignorance is almost as annoying as when people get relieved when x-rays come back "negative" and the stupid announcers say something banal (and just plain wrong) like "luckily, it's just a sprain".*

And unless it's a compound and/or open fracture, every single 'broken' bone in the NFL is merely a crack that may or may not transect the bone.

A "hairline" fracture implies one that does not transect the bone, and one in which there has been little or no displacement away from either side of the fracture. The implication of this implication is that the fracture requires less time to heal, as there is a smaller (if any) gap between the two sides of the fracture.


*Not to sidetrack my rant about fractures, but in many cases, sprains are worse than fractures. Sprains imply stretching, straining, tearing, and even rupturing of ligaments and tendons, with concomitant bruising of muscles, damage to cartilage, and even bone bruising. A simple fracture is often a far, far, far less serious injury than many sprains.

[Guest]

That said this isn't like a Broken Leg or Sports Hernia, its a minor crack.

As someone with a medical background, it bugs me whenever I hear people make the fallacious distinction between a "fracture" and a "break," or a "crack" and a "break," because there is no difference between these injuries... a fracture is a crack is a break. This medical ignorance is almost as annoying as when people get relieved when x-rays come back "negative" and the stupid announcers say something banal (and just plain wrong) like "luckily, it's just a sprain".*

And unless it's a compound and/or open fracture, every single 'broken' bone in the NFL is merely a crack that may or may not transect the bone.

A "hairline" fracture implies one that does not transect the bone, and one in which there has been little or no displacement away from either side of the fracture. The implication of this implication is that the fracture requires less time to heal, as there is a smaller (if any) gap between the two sides of the fracture.


*Not to sidetrack my rant about fractures, but in many cases, sprains are worse than fractures. Sprains imply stretching, straining, tearing, and even rupturing of ligaments and tendons, with concomitant bruising of muscles, damage to cartilage, and even bone bruising. A simple fracture is often a far, far, far less serious injury than many sprains.

Well this isn't like a Vick injury. Its on a non-weight bearing bone. My point is that its not gonna sideline him for a significant amount of time like Vick and mcNabb

[drowe]

I don't buy into that voodoo BS....but i still hope the entire Chicago Bears Defense ends up on the cover next year

[P-L]

For it to be "reality" it should have more then a 50% success rate. It doesn't. Culpepper, Vick, McNabb and now Alexander. Doesn't explain Eddie George or Ray Lewis.

I'm not a math professor but just looking at it, even if you don't count George and Lewis, that's a 66.6% sucess rate.

[sweetness34]

Injuries happen. I'm do not believe in curses at all, but the fact this happens very year is pretty alarming. That said this isn't like a Broken Leg or Sports Hernia, its a minor crack.

Also those teams of the madden cover victims do very poorly in that same season, which the Seahawks aren't.

They played Detroit, Arizona, and a NYG team that was coming off a huge win then hitting the road they were due for an L. Lets see how they play in Chicago.

Its not like our gameplan is gonna be changed that much. Shaun wasn't running very well to begin with, and our offense finally seems t be rolling.

I agree that the offense looks impressive, but now they will be facing a legit defense.

Living in Chicago they are legit, but i really, really think Deion Branch is gonna tear Tillman, who really isn't good IMO, apart.

He may or may not do that but I cant see the Seahawks winning that game.

Tillman while not an elite CB is still solid. And you better protect Hass because from what I've seen so far your OL is vulnerable to the pass rush. And if we can generate pressure early on Hass, you won't be able to spread the field as much.

We'll focus on stopping the run and then we'll be able to lay off in pass coverage and hopefully stymie Hass' passing attack.

[LonghornsLegend]

*Not to sidetrack my rant about fractures, but in many cases, sprains are worse than fractures. Sprains imply stretching, straining, tearing, and even rupturing of ligaments and tendons, with concomitant bruising of muscles, damage to cartilage, and even bone bruising. A simple fracture is often a far, far, far less serious injury than many sprains.

so would you want to hear that rex grossman sprained his ankle getting tackles, or that he fractured his ankle?


ill take the sprain all day long

[bearfan]

I don't buy into that voodoo BS....but i still hope the entire Chicago Bears Defense ends up on the cover next year

I am starting to love your packers comments! They make me giggle

[diabsoule]

it's too much of a coincidence to be just a coincidence.

[jackalope]

before now i would've said it's just coincedental. now i'm not sure.

since madden 2000 (1999 season) with barry sanders it's happened.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/26/al...urse-to-blame/