Perhaps the "loan curse" of the Madden NFL – a piece of mathematical myths that were caught after a series of lucky times for the first 10 players to gain fame – could be put down.
On Sunday night, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs into the Super 31L Super Bowl LIV tournament, and was just Madden's second (22) NFL star to win the Super Bowl in a season he was covered in. And Mahomes is the first cover star to win a Super Bowl MVP this season.
New England finishing star Rob Gronkowski on the cover of Madden NFL 17, and the Patriots have won Super Bowl LI this season. But there's a catch: a lot of injuries eventually cost Gronkowski a season after the 11th, and he watched the Super Bowl go from side to side. So if you're looking for a technical fix (the best kind), Mahomes is the first cover star that Madden will play in and win the Super Bowl (with its MVP) while eliminating all the curses, bad eyes and hexes trifecta.
As Madden NFL 20 a cover star, Mahomes got a fill from EA Sports in its annual Super Bowl performance. Mahomes didn't quite have the game the predicted limitations, but we arrived at the time of the count, which made good for the EA's prediction of the Chiefs' comeback win.
And if you wonder how EA Sports did in the face of Vegas, they beat Chiefs as a straight up and winning manager when the point was distributed (Chiefs conceded 1.5 points in the first round) but also missed more / less (with Madden summoning more against the 54-point line, 5).
Here are the 22 NFL players and their postseason influence on the NFL season when they starred on the cover of the Madden NFL program, since EA Sports first applied to one player in 2000:
- Madden NFL 2001: Eddie George, Tennessee (lost in the division round) *
- Madden NFL 2002: Davo Culpeper, Minnesota (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 2003: Marshall Faulk, St. Louis (didn't make the playoffs) *
- Madden NFL 2004: Michael Vick, Atlanta (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 2005: Ray Lewis, Baltimore (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 06: Donovan McNabb, Philadelphia (didn't make the playoffs) *
- Madden NFL 07: Shaun Alexander, Seattle (lost in a special circle) *
- Madden NFL 08: Vince Young, Tennessee (missing from wild cards)
- Madden NFL 09: Brett Favre, Green Bay (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 10: Troy Polamalu, Pittsburgh (didn't make the playoffs) and Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona (lost in divisional round) *
- Madden NFL 11: Drew Brakes, New Orleans (missing in round wild cards) *
- Madden NFL 12: Peyton Hillis, Cleveland (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 13: Calvin Johnson, Detroit (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 25: Barry Sanders, Detroit (absent, retired in 1998)
- Madden NFL 25: (Xbox One and PS4 Edition): Adrian Peterson, Minnesota (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 15: Richard Sherman, Seattle (missing the Super Bowl) *
- Madden NFL 16: Odell Beckham, Jr., New York Giants (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 17: Rob Gronkowski, New England (won the Super Bowl)
- Madden NFL 18: Tom Brady, New England (missing the Super Bowl) *
- Madden NFL 19: Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh (didn't make the playoffs)
- Madden NFL 20: Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City (won the Super Bowl, won the Super Bowl MVP)
* – He appeared at the end of the season after appearing in the Super Bowl.
