By: Bobby Hastings 9/12/2009
Thursday night marked the opening of the NFL season. This year the opener took place in Pittsburgh where the Steelers eventually beat the Titans in an exciting overtime win. From the opening of the game the first thing I noticed was how dominant Troy Polamalu looked. The man was everywhere, literally it seemed as if he was in on every play. The two plays that standout most where a third down stop on the goal line of the initial drive where he closed about 10 yards in under a second to make the tackle and his 1 handed interception 80 yards down the field in front of Rutgers rookie Kenny Britt. In any case that all ended quickly as Troy sprained his MCL and is now looking at missing 3-4 weeks of action.
The injury does not come as a surprise as video gamers and NFL fans are well aware of the Madden curse. Essentially the Madden curse states that any player to grace the cover of the popular video game is doomed to get injured. Lets quickly review a recent history Madden cover players:
2010 Troy Polamalu & Larry Fitzgerald
2009 Brett Favre – the ultimate home wrecker
2008 Vince Young – where do we start with this guy? Misses the season due to psychological issues….
2007 Shaun Alexander – suffers broken left foot in third game of the season
2006 Donovan McNabb – suffers sport hernia and misses five games
2005 Ray Lewis – has worst year of career failing to get an interception
2004 Michael Vick – breaks leg and plays only 5 games
2003 Marshall Faulk – hampered entire year by ankle and has first “un-Faulk” like year of career
2002 Daunte Culpepper – misses last 5 games of the year due to knee injury
2001 Eddie George – mishandles pass in divisional playoff game that is returned for a TD And sends Tennessee home.
2000 Barry Sanders – shockingly decides to retire from the NFL
Looking over this list is amazing! What a history! Why would anyone want to go on the cover of Madden? While it is a huge honor, and after playing the game for much of our lives being asked to be on the cover is a big thrill, the results speak for themselves. Larry Fitzgerald look out man you are next.
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