Long Live The Curse

Madden ’09 hit store shelves today, and the best part is we don’t even have to wait for the season to begin for the annual Madden Curse to come into effect. In a beautiful twist of irony, this year it is the game itself that’s cursed rather than the player depicted on the cover as Brett Favre went from retired icon to member of the Jets.

Of course, there is still ample opportunity for Brett to keep the curse alive on the field by putting up a stinker of a season, or seeing his NFL record for consecutive starts get shattered like a Rex Grossman tibia.

Oh, and just for kicks, check out this prematurely recorded Favre interview where he talks about how he’s glad that he’s retired so the curse won’t get him.

In other potential curse news, this year we also have Madden ’09 En Espanol. The cover boy for that edition is Bears offensive lineman Roberto Garza (how cool is it that a lineman is on the cover of a video game?) However, given the precarious state of the Bears offensive line, a clown car situation at quarterback and a host of unproven running backs, I’m thinking that an injury to Garza would put the Bears strongly in the running for worst team in the NFL. So here’s hoping that there’s no maldicion tied to the Spanish Madden. Here’s also hoping that they got the guy who screams “GOOOOOOOOOOOOL!” to do the play-by-play.

And finally, one last video game-related item. Seventeen years after the fact, we still have one player left from Tecmo Super Bowl on an active NFL roster: Jeff Feagles. Graphically, Jeff has improved considerably over the years, but he no longer has the leg needed to boom 70-yard punts on the fly. So I guess I’d call it a wash. But we’re still hoping he keeps up the good fight.