Dustin Dobbs ’10 and D.J. Sixsmith ’11
Sports Editors
Superstitions are heavily prevalent throughout sports today, especially in baseball, football, and basketball. Curses…always seem follow these superstitions.
The Curse of The Bambino haunted the Boston Red Sox for 86 years as they failed to win a single World Series title while their rival the New York Yankees won 27. The Chicago Cubs have been “cursed” ever since 1945 when a fan brought his pet goat to the game, and have had one of the longest World Series title droughts in Major League Baseball.
The Detroit Lions have been cursed since 1958 when their star quarterback Bobby Layne was traded. Outraged, he swore that the Lions would not win again for 50 years. What a surprise! One of the, if not the worst franchise in the National Football League won one single playoff game since the trade, and exactly 50 seasons later, they went 0-16…and yet they are far away from being a somewhat decent team.
Another curse that haunts fans and athletes nation wide is the Sports Illustrated magazine curse, where the cover athlete suffers a setback on or off the field. According to Sports Illustrated, since 2002, 73% of their cover athletes have been cursed.
One of the most feared and prominent curses in all of sports is the Madden Curse.
Similarly to Sports Illustrated, the video game started selecting one player to feature on the cover each year, which began in 2001. Dating back to the good ‘ole Eddie George days in ’01, the curse has been alive as ever, following every single player that has appeared on the front cover of Madden, whether it be an injury or a sub-par season.
Each athlete on the cover takes great pride in their honor, but rarely do they talk about their thoughts on the curse.
Some consider curses and jinx’s to be foolish or even childish, but facts and numbers don’t lie. It doesn’t take a genius to realize every athlete that has appeared on Madden has been cursed on the gridiron.
This year’s game decided to curse two athletes rather than one. Pittsburgh Steeler’s safety Troy Polamalu shares the spotlight with the Arizona Cardinal’s wide-receiver Larry Fitzgerald. Polamalu’s curse has already found him, sidelining him for the first six games. Fitzgerald, who already appeared on EA Sports’ NCAA Football 2005 with no harm, is a firm disbeliever in the curse. Watch out Mr. Fitzgerald, the curse will find you.
Most football fans think this is nonsense, some find it coincidental. Let the facts speak for themselves.
