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Madden cover curse: Curse returns with vengeance on Christian McCaffrey

Updated Dec. 4, 2024 1:50 p.m. ET

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The vaunted Madden "cover curse" might have struck again this season.

San Francisco 49ers star running back Christian McCaffrey, who was on the cover of Madden 25, will likely miss the remainder of the 2024 season after suffering a PCL injury in their Week 13 loss to the Buffalo Bills. McCaffrey is expected to be out for six weeks and will be placed on injured reserve, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters.

For many years, the belief has been that whichever player is featured on the cover of the iconic video game will either miss significant time due to injury or have a major regression in their on-field performance. So, McCaffrey's potential season-ending injury (while appearing in just four games prior due to an Achilles injury) would certainly fit that criteria. 

With one major exception, it seems as though the curse has really lost its luster over the past several years prior to McCaffrey's placement on the cover. However, many of its victims have been running backs, like McCaffrey. That said, let's take a look at how Madden cover athletes have fared over the years following the release of the game with their image on it.

(Note: Madden 23, the 2022 edition of the game, did not feature any current player on its cover but instead honored the late John Madden, the legendary former NFL on FOX analyst who also helped design and lent his name to the game. Madden was also featured on every cover of the game until 2000.)

Madden 25: Christian McCaffrey

After a few dormant seasons, the Madden curse came back with a vengeance in 2024. McCaffrey missed the majority of training camp and the entire preseason due to calf and Achilles injuries. He was expected to return for the start of the regular season, but he was ruled out for Week 1 at the last minute. McCaffrey wound up missing the 49ers' first eight games, visiting an Achilles specialist in Germany at one point. When he returned, McCaffrey struggled to have the same impact he did when he won Offensive Player of the Year in 2023. He recorded just 348 scrimmage yards and didn't score a touchdown in the four games he played before the PCL injury. 

As McCaffrey dealt with injuries, the 49ers have faltered. They're 5-7 through their first 12 games and look far from the team that made the Super Bowl in 2023. They've also dealt with long-term injuries to Brandon Aiyuk, Nick Bosa and Talanoa Hafunga all missing significant time in 2024. 

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 24: Josh Allen

At one point, it looked like the Madden curse was coming back with a vengeance. The Buffalo Bills were 6-6 after their first 12 games and fired their offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey in the middle of the season. The Bills stormed back with their star QB leading the way, winning their final five games to capture their fourth straight AFC East title. Sure, Buffalo lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City in the divisional round due to a missed field goal that evoked another infamous moment in Bills history, but that's not the curse we're focused on.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 22: Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady

Whatever Madden curse existed in 2021 was no match for two of the game's greatest players. Mahomes played the entire season, throwing 37 touchdowns and leading the Chiefs to a 12-5 record. The 43-year-old Brady led the league with 5,300 passing yards in his second season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Neither player ultimately returned to the Super Bowl one year after facing off against each other in the game, but it's unfair to say their seasons were cursed.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 21: Lamar Jackson

The defending NFL MVP rushed for over 1,000 yards and led the Baltimore Ravens back to the playoffs, where they avenged the previous year's postseason defeat by beating the Tennessee Titans on the road in the wild-card round.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 20: Mahomes

If there was ever a Madden curse-breaker, it was Mahomes, who led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl win in 50 years after his first appearance on the video game's cover.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 19: Antonio Brown

Brown did go on to have a productive 2018 season immediately after he was featured on the cover, catching a career-high 15 touchdowns. But the Pittsburgh Steelers failed to reach the playoffs and Brown's career fell apart soon after as he dealt with numerous off-field issues and clashed with teammates and coaches everywhere he went, including with the Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots and the Bucs. He has only appeared in 16 total games since the 2018 season and none since 2021.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 18: Brady

The future Hall of Famer finally graced the cover of Madden with 2017's "GOAT edition" and, sure enough, proved himself immune to the curse, winning the last of his three NFL MVPs and leading the Patriots back to the Super Bowl. Despite losing to the Philadelphia Eagles in that game, it was hardly a cursed season for Brady.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 17: Rob Gronkowski

Injuries caught up with Gronkowski in 2016, as the superstar tight end only appeared in six games due to a herniated disc in his back and other injury issues. This is still the last instance of a "traditional" Madden cover curse.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 16: Odell Beckham Jr.

OBJ graced the Madden cover just as his star was ascending heading into his second NFL season, and the curse did not stop his rise. Beckham set career highs in receiving yards (1,450) and touchdown catches (13) in 2015, then helped the New York Giants back to the playoffs with 101 receptions in 2016. Yes, Beckham dealt with injuries and regression in the years that followed, but the peak of his career performance-wise clearly came after he was featured on the Madden cover.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 15: Richard Sherman

Sherman's Madden cover appearance also came during the height of his career and also failed to slow him down. At the time of the game's release, the star cornerback had only made one Pro Bowl; he helped the defending champion Seattle Seahawks back to the Super Bowl that year and made the next three Pro Bowls.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 25 (2013): Adrian Peterson**

After rushing for over 2,000 yards and winning NFL MVP in 2012, Peterson declined in 2013, running for just 1,266 yards over 14 games that season. He then missed nearly all of 2014 after being indicted on child abuse charges. Though he returned to lead the league in rushing in 2015, his numbers were still well below his MVP level, and Peterson struggled even further in subsequent years.

**Peterson was featured on an alternate cover of the game, while its main cover featured the long-retired Barry Sanders.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 13: Calvin Johnson

It wouldn't make sense to claim a player fell victim to the Madden cover curse when that player set the NFL single-season receiving yards record immediately after being featured on the cover. Johnson remained a productive receiver until his retirement after the 2015 season.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 12: Peyton Hillis

After winning a fan vote to be featured on the cover of the game, Hillis only appeared in 10 games in 2011 due to injury and only averaged 3.6 yards per carry when he was on the field.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 11: Drew Brees

Brees led the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints back to the playoffs, but also threw a franchise-record 22 interceptions in the process. Brees and the Saints' 2010 season is best remembered as the one that ended at the hands of Marshawn Lynch and a 7-9 Seahawks squad in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 10: Larry Fitzgerald, Troy Polamalu

Our first and only split result! The Super Bowl 43 foes had vastly different 2009 seasons. Fitzgerald cemented his superstardom with over 1,000 yards receiving, a career-high 13 touchdown catches and a Pro Bowl nod, while Polamalu was limited to five games and a career-low 20 tackles due to an MCL injury.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 09: Brett Favre

Jets fans can blame Madden for Favre's inconsistent season. After the cover featuring Favre in Packers gear was already finalized, the quarterback retired, unretired and forced a trade to the Jets so Green Bay could turn to its signal-caller of the future: Aaron Rodgers. (What's that they say about time being a flat circle?) Favre struggled with a shoulder injury and threw an NFL-high 22 interceptions as the Jets went 7-9 in his lone season in New York.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 08: Vince Young

Young led Texas to the college football national title in 2005 and won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2006. In 2007, however, Young was benched late in the season after a 9-17 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and his career never recovered from there.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 07: Shaun Alexander

After rushing for over 1,000 yards in five straight seasons, the 2005 NFL MVP rushed for 896 over 10 games in 2006 due to a broken foot and was out of the NFL two years later.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 06: Donovan McNabb

McNabb followed up a season in which he led the Eagles to the Super Bowl with one in which he missed eight games due to injury and feuded with top receiver Terrell Owens as the Eagles went 6-10.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 05: Ray Lewis

Leave it to this Ravens franchise icon to beat the curse at the height of its powers. The Ravens missed the playoffs, but Lewis recorded 147 tackles and remained one of the NFL's best linebackers for nearly a decade afterward.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 04: Michael Vick

Vick's extremely skilled avatar in this version of the game is considered one of the greatest video-game characters of all time, but the real-life dual-threat quarterback only played in five games that season due to a fractured fibula.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 03: Marshall Faulk

After recording 5 straight 1,000-yard seasons, the star Rams running back only started 10 games in 2002 and never reached the 1,000-yard mark again for the rest of his career.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 02: Daunte Culpepper

Culpepper missed five games due to a knee injury, fumbled 16 times, went 4-7 as a starter, and had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 14-13.

VERDICT: Cursed

Madden 01: Eddie George

What curse? George led the NFL in rushing attempts (403) and recorded a career-high 1,509 rush yds and 14 rushing touchdowns.

VERDICT: Not cursed

Madden 2000: Barry Sanders

Shortly after he was announced as the first non-John Madden cover star of the game, Sanders abruptly retired before the 1999 season and never played in the NFL again. Madden returned to the cover for one final time (before 2023), while Sanders finally got his appearance as the main cover star of the 25th-anniversary edition of the game in 2013.

VERDICT: Cursed

Barry Sanders abruptly retired before he had a chance to be the Madden 2000 cover star, but he finally got his opportunity with Madden 25 in 2013.

FINAL TALLY: 15 cursed, 11 not cursed

History still leans towards there being a Madden cover curse. But with only one "cursed" player since 2016, Allen and Bills fans can rest easy that the current trend is favoring a great season for the quarterback in 2023 and beyond.

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