Tech Check: Favre's Madden Jinx?

2009 was the 20th anniversary of EA Sports' Madden NFL video game franchise. If you follow the NFL, you're probably aware of the so-called "Madden Cover Jinx" (not to be confused with the Sports Illustrated cover jinx). According to the Madden faithful, once a player appears on the cover of the popular video game, he rarely reproduces success from previous years. Maybe in an attempt to stop the trend, EA Sports chose to place the 'retired' Brett Favre on the cover in a Green Bay Packers uniform for the '09 edition. I applaud their creativity...I mean how can a player possibly fall victim to the jinx when his career is already over and he's strolling off into the sunset?

Oops.

After three months of non-stop ESPN coverage last summer, Brett Favre eventually decided to return to the NFL, and not with the Packers but the New York Jets. The streak continued. Here's a look at recent 'cover models' and how they performed following that dreaded phone call from their agent that they were chosen to grace the cover of Madden:

2002: Daunte Culpepper was fresh off an amazing offensive season in 2000 which featured 4,000 yards passing and 40 total TD's. 2001 was not so impressive. He turned the ball over on a regular basis before a back injury put him on the shelf in Week 11. Culpepper later suffered a catastrophic knee injury which derailed his career and even forced a brief retirement this year when no teams were interested in his services.

2003: Marshall Faulk did his best to battle the curse. After 2,000 yards and 21 TD's in 2001, Faulk's Madden season included respectable numbers but he suffered an ankle injury which cost him five games. Faulk never rushed for 1,000 yards again.

2004: Not even a week after Madden '04 was released, Michael Vick broke his leg during a preseason game with Baltimore. Vick managed to return for the final five games that season but only threw for 585 yards. He now remains jailed on federal charges for his involvement with illegal dogfighting.

2005: What an honor for Ray Lewis, the first defensive player to ever grace the cover. Lewis failed to record an interception for the first season in his career and broke his hand during the final regular season game. After making the Super Bowl the year before, the Ravens failed to reach the playoffs.

2006: Fresh off a Super Bowl appearance, Donovan McNabb suffered a sports hernia (which eventually required season-ending surgery), endured the wrath of TO (remember the situps in the driveway?), and subsequently the Eagles missed the playoffs for the first time in five seasons.

2007: After being on the cover, Shaun Alexander broke his foot, missed six starts, failed to rush for 1,000 yards for the first time since 2000, and spent most of last season on the couch probably playing Madden.

2008: Vince Young suffered a quad injury midway through the '07 campaign and missed a handful of starts. He was benched during the 2008 opener, reportedly became suicidal and hasn't started a game since.

2009: Favre was traded from Green Bay to the New York Jets. The Jets began the season 8-3 but lost all but one game down the stretch, including a must-win battle against shunned former Jets QB Chad Pennington and Miami, and missed the playoffs completely.

Recently, testimony from the class action lawsuit in which retired NFL players won $28 million from the NFLPA was released. An executive with EA Sports, Joel Linzer, was questioned about EA's choice to place Favre on the cover:

Question: ...Madden NFL Game. And, in fact, that's been a very successful game for EA, correct?
Linzer: Yes, over 20 years.
Question: 20 years. In fact, the 2009 version was the 20th anniversary edition, right?
Linzer: It's the 20th of the Madden NFL series, that's correct.
Question: Right. And you chose to put on the cover of that a retired player at the time, right?
Linzer: Uhm, well, Brett Favre at the time we decided to put him on the cover was not retired, had not announced his retirement. He subsequently announced his retirement. We thought about replacing him to have an active player. But the logistics of making the packages are kind of complicated, and we decided to stay with Brett Favre. And I think as most people subsequently know, he revoked his retirement and is currently an active player with the New York Jets.

Jets fans surely have to be wishing EA Sports had went ahead and decided to go with a different player. So if the jinx is this prevalent, what could possibly make a player want to appear on the cover for next year? According to additional testimony, Linzer described a "highlight agreement," more or less a monetary incentive to appear on the cover and assume the PR duties associated with the video game release:

Question: Could you show the jury what it is? That's actually the Madden Game, right, in the package it comes in the store?
Linzer: Well... This is one version of Madden NFL 2004 for the PlayStation 2 as resold probably at GameStop on a used basis for 99 cents. It didn't sell for 99 cents when we offered it initially.
Question: ...I'm not going to get into how much it costs. It doesn't matter to me. All I want to do is focus on this. If you look on the cover of this Madden game... That's Michael Vick, right?
Linzer: This is Michael Vick, and at this time he was an active NFL player.
Question: Right. He subsequently had some trouble with the law, and he's in custody, right?
Mr. Feher: Objection, your honor. That's not relevant.
Mr. Hummel: You're right. I'll withdraw it... But he is not currently an active NFL player... But at the time he was, right?
Linzer: That's correct.
Question: Okay. And did you have to obtain a separate agreement with Michael Vick to put him on the cover?
Linzer: We obtained a separate agreement with Michael Vick and paid him incremental amounts for two things... to be on the cover... and to perform services for us in connection with the launch of the game, the TV commercial, etc.... we have to enter into a separate agreement as we did unfortunately with Michael Vick, who had some problems subsequently... That's separate from the group license that we signed with Players, Inc. to have all of the players in the video game... It's frequently called a "highlight agreement..."
Question: All right. So this is a situation where he - Mr. Vick - signed a separate agreement...
Linzer: We have somebody on staff at EA... who frequently makes contacts to find a player and his agent who are interested in being on the cover and is willing to perform the P.R. services that we want and be in the TV commercials and is familiar with the game... The money that we paid Michael Vick under his highlight agreement, to the best of my knowledge, is not shared with the other 1,400 - 1,500 active players.

Is a few extra thousand really worth the Madden Jinx? Let's all hope your hometown hero isn't the 2010 choice.

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