Is The Madden Curse Real, Or Will Saquon Barkley Be Fine?
Saquon Barkley is gracing the cover of Madden 26. A well-deserved honor for him after his historic season, which ended with a Super Bowl parade. But there is a potential…
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – FEBRUARY 09: Saquon Barkley #26 of the Philadelphia Eagles runs the ball in the fourth quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome on February 09, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)Saquon Barkley is gracing the cover of Madden 26. A well-deserved honor for him after his historic season, which ended with a Super Bowl parade. But there is a potential downside. The Madden Curse.
For those unfamiliar, the Madden Curse is the superstition that Madden Cover Athletes always get injured, or just have a terrible season. But is there any truth to those fears, or is it just a silly superstition?
It goes back to the second-ever cover athlete. Daunte Culpepper. After throwing for 33 TDs and nearly 4000 yards the year before, he missed parts of 6 games, and coughed up 16 fumbles. It started a fumbling problem in his career that never went away.
That was only the start, though. Here are some of the other Madden Cover Athletes and how the "curse", impacted them.
The History Of The Madden Curse
- 2003- Marshall Faulk- Fell short of 1000 yards after 5 straight 1000-yard seasons, never reached 1000 again.
- 2004- Mike Vick- Fractured his fibula a few weeks after the release, played in only 5 games
- 2006- Donovan McNabb- Battled multiple injuries, played in only 9 games, and had a very public feud with Terrell Owens
- 2007- Shaun Alexander- Broke his foot, played in only 10 games, missed 1000 yards for 1st time in 5 years, never reached 1000 again
- 2008- Vince Young- Picked off 17 times with only 9 TDs before getting benched
- 2009- Brett Favre- forced his way out of Green Bay, threw league-leading 22 picks with the Jets'
- 2010- Troy Polamalu- missed 11 games with MCL injury
- 2012- Peyton Hillis- missed 6 games, never reached 1000 yards again after his breakout campaign the previous year.
- 2017- Rob Gronkowski- battled various injuries, started only 6 games
- 2025- Christian McCaffrey- Played in only 4 Games
What you will notice is that there are a lot of gaps. The original cover athlete, Eddie George, had one of his best seasons after gracing the cover. Ray Lewis missed only 1 game. It got Troy Polamalu, but the man he shared the cover with, Larry Fitzgerald, was fine. Recently, it took years off until McCaffrey.
Also, some of those are not exactly curses. Hillis might have just been a bad player. He is not the first player to have one great year, then fall off. The same goes for Vince Young.
Football is a physical sport. There are a lot of injuries. It was weird that for nearly a decade every cover athlete suffered an injury. Looking back, and looking at how the next decade went, it is hard to put much stock into that.
What we can put stock into is that Saquon Barkley carried the ball a lot last year. Injuries marred Saquon's time with the Giants, but he managed a healthy season. History is not kind to RBs coming off seasons like that. If anything does happen, or if he just gets beaten up, it will be less so the "Madden Curse" and more that RB is a tough position that wears players down.
But some guys avoid that. Derrick Henry has shouldered workloads like that for a long time, and hasn't slowed down. Maybe Saquon Barkley can avoid that slump, too. But if he doesn't, it won't be because of the Madden Curse. That is not a thing.
