you's never heard of the madden curse peli?
the madden curse is when a star player is put on the cover of madden football games and then the next year they have a huge regression either from injury, legal problems, random ****ty seasons, etc.
Quote:
Prior to 1999, every annual installment of the Madden NFL series primarily featured Madden on its cover.[1][33] In 1999, Electronic Arts selected Garrison Hearst to appear on the PAL version's cover, and has since featured one of the league’s top players on every annual installment[34] despite Madden's opposition.[1]
While appearing on the cover has become an honor akin to appearing on the Wheaties box,[1] much like the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx, certain players who appeared on Madden video game box art have experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madden_NFL#Madden_Curse
As Calvin Johnson (megatron) was on the most recent cover, he is due for the curse this year. This could happen either through getting injured, Matthew Stafford having a ****ty year or getting injured, the lions O-line playing like **** leading to bad numbers for Stafford leading to bad numbers for megatron, etc.