Last night, during the second quarter of the Steelers vs. Titans season opener, Troy Polamalu, the crazy-haired safety for the Steelers, suffered a game-ending knee injury after catching an incredible one-armed interception (see below). Preliminary reports suggest Polamalu will likely miss between three to six weeks as he sprained his MCL during the play. Which is unfortunate, both for Polamalu and the Steelers.
What is interesting about the injury, though, is that it marks yet another instance of the so-called Madden Jinx (also known as the Madden Curse). That is, the strange coincidence of players who make the cover of Madden’s annual video game, Madden NFL, soon after going down for the count.
Starting in 2002 with Daunte Culpepper, the “jinx” has taken out players such as Marshall Faulk, Ray Lewis, Shaun Alexander, Vince Young and Michael Vick with broken legs, missed games and all-around poor performances. And while many fans dismiss the Madden Jinx as superstition, you can’t fault them either for getting nervous when their player makes the cover.
Especially interesting this year is that Polamalu shared the cover (a first in the game’s history) with the Arizona Cardinals wide-receiver, Larry Fitzgerald. Now, I’m not too superstitious myself, but, uh, it might be time to make some changes in your Fantasy lineup. Just saying.
Comments
Kevin
September 11th, 2009 - 10:49:20 AM
don't believe the hype - larry fitzgerald's gonna have a great season, that dude is unstoppable
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