Toddy is wrong. First off, the Madden 'curse' truely started with Vick.
Originally Posted by: Formo
I don't know this to be true without researching, but I heard it started with Barry Sanders because he retired shortly after being on the Madden cover.
Edit, one site says Garrison Hearst was the first after his awesome '98 season??
Madden 99 - Garrison Hearst - Missed both '99 and '00 seasons completely due to injury.
Madden 2000 - Barry Sanders (in the background) - Retired after '98 season
Madden 2000 - Dorsey Levens (one version) - Played only 5 games in '00
Madden 2001 - Eddie George - '01 season, 939 yards, 5 TD's
Madden 2002 - Daunte Culpepper - decent '02 season, for his standards
Madden 2003 - Marshall Faulk - missed 5 games in '03 season
Madden 2004 - Michael Vick - missed several games during '03 season
Madden 05 - Ray Lewis
Madden 06 - Donovan McNabb
Madden 07 - Shaun Alexander
Madden 08 - Vince Young
Madden 09 - Brett Favre
Madden 10 - Larry Fitzgerald/Troy Polamalu
Madden 11 - Drew Brees
Madden 12 - Peyton Hillis
Look up their seasons after being on the cover. Eek.
Edit2, tried adding their season summary while on cover, but Michael Vick confused me. He was put on the cover after playing less than half the '03 season?