The superstitious among the Who Dat Nation are issuing a collective groan today after Super Bowl MVP New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was named cover boy for EA Sports’ Madden 11 NFL video game. The cause of their apprehension: the Madden Curse.
Since 1999, when EA Sports began putting images of superlative players on the video game’s cover instead of a picture of John Madden, a majority of those players featured on the cover underwent either a season-affecting injury or experienced a significant decline in their careers.
1999 - Running back Garrison Hearst appears on the Madden cover and fades from the NFL spotlight. 2002 - Quarterback Duante Culpepper sets the NFL record for fumbles, throws 23 interceptions and leads the Minnesota Vikings to a 5-11 record. 2003 - Running back Marshall Faulk begins the performance decline that ends with his 2005 retirement. 2005 - Linebacker Ray Lewis breaks his wrist in week 15 and also records his first season without an interception. 2006 - Quarterback Donovan McNabb blows out a knee and ends season early. 2007 - Running back Shaun Alexander misses six starts with a foot injury. 2008 - Quarterback Vince Young hurts his knee in game 1, is replaced by back-up Kerry Collins, and never regains the starting job during the 2008 season. 2009 - Quarterback Brett Favre admits after the season that a nagging torn biceps injury hampered his performance as the Jets slumped in the last third of the season. 2010 - Safety Troy Polumalu, who shared the cover with wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, misses half the season with separate knee injuries.
Unlike years past when EA executives chose the cover model, this year fans voted for their choice. For more on Brees' selection, read the story at ESPN's Web site.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again, it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to go public this year.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
The superstitious among the Who Dat Nation are issuing a collective groan today after Super Bowl MVP New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees was named cover boy for EA Sports’ Madden 11 NFL video game. The cause of their apprehension: the Madden Curse.
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