EA, a popular sports video game franchise, has been most well known the past couple of years for the fact that players that make covers of their respective sports titles, seem to meet with a bad fate, more commonly known as the Madden Curse, for the fact that it mainly affects Football Players, and rarely affects basketball players these are some of the things that have happened since players have been making the covers.

The cover boys

• 1999 ("Madden 2000"): Barry Sanders. The first NFL player to be on the cover quickly became the first former NFL player on the cover. He retired before training camp began.

• 2000 ("Madden 2001"): Eddie George: He rushed for 1,509 yards and 16 touchdowns, both career highs prior to the release of the cover yet after the release, He barely averaged 3 yards a carry, failed to rush for a 1,000 yards, and never averaged more than 3.4 yards for the rest of his career.

• 2001 ("Madden 2002"): Daunte Culpepper. Missed the final five games with a knee injury, but the curse kicked in well before the injury. He went from being tied for the league lead with 33 TD passes in 2000 to having almost as many interceptions (13) as touchdown passes (14) in 2001.

• 2002 ("Madden 2003"): Marshall Faulk. He rushed for 1,000 yards in seven of his first eight seasons, but he hasn't surpassed that mark since appearing on the cover of the game. In 2002, he missed two games with an injured ankle. He just recently formally announced his retirement.

• 2002 ("Triple Play 2002") – Luis Gonzalez, OF Arizona DiamondbacksLuGo, the man who once had a piece of his used chewing gum sell for $10,000 online, got the cover of EA’s sub par baseball franchise in 2002. Following his breakout 2001 season in which he clubbed 57 homers with a Ruthian 142 RBIs, the D-Backs leftfielder fell back to earth the following season, right after appearing on the cover of Triple Play 2002. Chew on that. Key stats before the EA cover: Hit 57 HRs when everyone was hitting 50 homeruns – Drove in 142 RBIs… 142! Batted .325, 40 points higher than his career average

• 2003 ("Madden 2004"): Michael Vick. Suffered a broken right fibula during an exhibition game. He missed the first 11 games of the regular season. It has been very well noted that the game he was injured in took place One day after the cover was seen.

• 2004 ("Madden 2005"): Ray Lewis. The Ravens' linebacker didn't have an interception for the only time in his career. He missed the regular-season finale because of an injured wrist. The Ravens also failed to make the playoffs after winning the Division the prior year.

• 2004 ("NHL 2004") – Dany Heatley, RW Atlanta Thrashers This is the saddest of all the cursed tales, as it contains the only death that has been associated with the EA Curse. Touted as one of a handful of players who could save the struggling NHL, Heatley crashed his Ferrari into a wall reportedly going faster than 80 miles per hour. In addition to suffering near season-ending injuries (Heatley would return late in the season), Heatley best friend/his teams Goalie, Dan Snyder died sitting less than a foot away from him. The death caused Heatley to be charged with vehicular homicide. It is also noted that Heatley wasn't the original coverboy, the original coverboy, Joe Thornton was arrested for assault right after he finished his photoshoot for the cover so EA Pulled him, yet after the accident EA Switched again from Heatley to Joe Sakic, yet there are still many copies of the game out there with Heatley's picture on the cover. These incidents are by far the worse to date associated with the EA Curse.

• 2005 ("Madden 2006"): Donovan McNabb. After the Eagles slipped to a 4-5 record, McNabb missed the final seven games because of a sports hernia. He continued to play through the injury and was placed on injured reserve after re-aggrivating the injury in a game against the Cowboys. It is also well noted in the previous year the Eagles had made the Super Bowl, on the Arm of Donoban Mcnabb and the hands of Terrell Owens, yet after the release of the cover, T.O., and had his fallout with the Eagles and ironically wound up a Cowboy the next Season.

• 2005 ("NFL Head Coach"): Bill Cohwers - After his team winning the Super Bowl the prior year, Bill Cohwers lost his Quarterback in Big Ben after he was in a motorcycle accident fracturing his face, Big Ben also suffered a severe groin injury, and the team as A whole failed to even make the playoffs. Bill Cohwers resigned/retired after the season.

• 2006 ("Madden 2007"): Shaun Alexander. He challened the cuse, saying he didn't believe in it, yet after being name the Leagues MVP the prior recored-breaking year, He gained 187 yards in the first three games, his slowest start since 2002, he suffered a chipped bone in his foot and continued to play and now is out indefinitely with a broken bone in his left foot.

• 2006 ("NCAA 2007"): Reggie Bush> After being constantly regarded as the Believed Number One Pick on the NFL Draft, Reggie Bush slipped in the Draft, and a highly publicized Report has been going around about the illegal giving of money and Gifts to Reggie from the University of Southern California, to get Reggie to play there.

So do you believe in this curse? If not stay tuned for these coming sporting seasons, and see what happens to the respective coverboys, if you don't believe in it now you will soon enough.

The only odd thing here, again is the lack of incidents with basketball players, no BasketBall player has ever been affected.