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Yesterday, ESPN announced that Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks fractured his foot and would be out indefinitely.
Why does this pertain to gamers? Shaun Alexander was the cover athlete for Madden NFL ‘07. Clearly, the Madden curse has struck again. 1999 was the first year Madden had an athlete grace the cover of the game. Barry Sanders, the first cover athlete, unexpectedly retired a week before training camp. Since then, every other cover athlete has suffered an injury or unimpressive season during the year they were on the cover of Madden. Daunte Culpepper’s season ended with a knee injury; Marshall Faulk suffered an ankle injury; Ray Lewis didn’t score a single interception for the first time in his career; Donovan McNabb was injured during the first game of the season and finally had to give up his season when he reinjured his groin.
You would think the football players would learn. But, alas, we have another victim fallen to the Madden curse.