ESPN

If you believe in this sort of thing, you happen to have a very good chance of breaking a very important bone in your body if you're named the cover athlete of EA's Madden NFL football game. How else do you explain the strange rash of injuries and/or dips in production that have affected the careers of the ill-fated cover athletes?

As EA prepares to name the cover athlete of Madden NFL 09 at the 2008 NFL Draft, it's important to point out that the game of football is inherently violent, and it's an outright blessing to last an entire 16-game season unscathed. But based on the evidence at hand, Madden cover athletes may as well take the field carrying a black cat and a broken mirror, because their luck is not getting any better, and we have actual numbers to prove it. Here's the breakdown:

Madden NFL Cover Curse
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SEASON BEFORE COVER (1999-2000) G ATT YDS AVG 16 320 1304 4.1   SEASON AFTER COVER (2000-2001) G ATT YDS AVG 16 403 1509 3.7
It's difficult to say that the curse started with Eddie George. The season he graced the Madden cover, the former Heisman Trophy winner set career marks with 1,509 rushing yards and 14 rushing touchdowns. He was an iron man throughout his career, starting 128 consecutive games, second only to Walter Payton (Sweetness racked up 170 consecutive starts). Maybe it was the weight of the cover, or maybe it was the 403 carries he endured that 2000 season, but George's productivity began to wane in later seasons. He dropped to 3.3 yards-per-carry and lost a step in the process. Never again did he break a run of more than 40 yards, and he only managed 13 more carries of 20 yards or greater between 2000 and his retirement in 2005. But by the end of his cover season, the sky was the limit for George. People didn't get suspicious until …