Patrick Mahomes Puts Madden Curse To The Test

• The Madden Curse is a superstition that the player on the cover of the Madden series of football video games will not have a successful season after being on the cover.
• Many athletes have been on the cover and fallen victim to this, among them Peyton Hillis and Troy Polamalu.
• Patrick Mahomes has a chance to win the Super Bowl MVP the season he was on the cover, and thus put an end to the curse.

MIAMI – Patrick Mahomes has a chance to break the curse. Not the curse of the Kansas City Chiefs, who have not been to the Super Bowl in around half a century, but the curse of the Madden Football video game cover.

The Madden Curse, as it is affectionately known, is a constant threat to those that would be NFL stars. The front cover of Madden is full of painful memories, of injuries, suspensions, of Brett Favre on the Jets – stars that had excellent years and then became nothing.

Basically, the gist of the curse is that whenever a football player graces the cover of one of the famous Madden line of football video games, their next season will be terrible, full of injury and heartbreak, or failing that, unsuccessful in other ways.

Those who indulge in Madden for the sake of esports betting or just casual players of the series are familiar with the non-fact-based superstition.

Famous examples of the Madden Curse include Brett Favre in 2009, when he was put on the cover in a Green Bay Packers uniform and promptly left the Packers, went to the Jets, got in a lot of trouble off the field, and injured his shoulder.

Similarly, Adrian Peterson was put on the cover in 2014 and was more or less immediately indicted on child abuse charges after it was revealed that the Vikings star running back used physical violence to discipline his son. Peterson was suspended after the first game of the regular season and did not play another game that year.

This year, Patrick Mahomes has a chance to not only become the second player on the cover of a Madden game to win a Super Bowl, but he can also do it as the star on the field. Richard Sherman was on the Seahawks when he was on the cover of Madden, and they lost to the Patriots after Malcolm Butler famously intercepted Russell Wilson’s pass on the goal line. Now, with the shoe on the other foot, Sherman will look to do the same to Mahomes.

The only other player to receive a Super Bowl ring was Rob Gronkowski in the 2016-17 season, and Gronkowski fell victim to the curse in his own way, receiving a season-ending back injury in week 13 that kept him off the field during Super Bowl LI.

In other words, no player has ever been on the cover of Madden, played in the Super Bowl, and won the Super Bowl MVP. Mahomes has a chance to be the first, the curse-breaker. Given his performance throughout the playoffs, many who bet on the NFL are putting action that he could be the one to do it.

Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs are slight favorites over the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers. They are favored by one point on the spread, and are -120 favorites on the money line.

Mahomes himself is the odds on favorite to be the Super Bowl MVP, which would be a truly unprecedented curse-breaking achievement.

However, Mahomes has to contend with a former Madden cover player in 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman. Sherman will look to this game to perhaps be the manifestation of the Madden curse for Mahomes.

The Kansas City Chiefs have not won a Super Bowl since 1969, and have not even made it to the big game since that same year. This curse, to Mahomes, is likely the more important one to break.

News tags: Adrian Peterson | Brett Favre | Madden 20 | Madden Curse | Malcolm Butler | Patrick Mahomes | Richard Sherman | Rob Gronkowski | Russell Wilson