The road to the NFL season has many milestones. Beginning in late February with the NFL Scouting Combine, the excitement over the next season builds with the NFL draft, training camp and preseason games. In the middle it all is “Madden Day,” the release of annual Madden NFL football videogame.
Madden NFL, the longest running video game franchise, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with Madden 2009. The game is so popular that last year’s release was named “Maddenoliday” by producer Electronic Arts and celebrated with a full-day event in Times Square, complete with parade, concert and a recreation of the New Year’s Eve ball drop (replaced by life-sized picture of the game).
The Madden NFL series is named after Football Hall of Fame player, commentator and Oakland Raiders coach, John Madden. Since first published in 1989, the series has sold millions of copies, with the last three iterations selling nearly 2 million copies each.
Madden is often criticized for being too similar year to year since it EA Sports purchased an exclusive license to the NFL and its players in 2004, effectively eliminating the competing NFL 2K series, produced by 2K Sports until that year.
| The Madden Curse is the superstition that players who appear on a Madden NFL game cover will have a poor season, be injured, or their team will do poorly. |
| 1999: Garrison Hearst |
| The first year an athlete appeared on the Madden cover was Garrison Hearst. In the second round of the playoffs, Hearst injured his knee didn’t play again until the 2001 season. |
| 2000: Barry Sanders |
| Barry Sanders appeared on the cover with John Madden. A week before training camp opened for the season, Barry Sanders abruptly retired leaving the Detroit Lions short. |
| 2001: Eddie George |
| Eddie George had a career low 939 rushing yards the following year and suffered a toe injury. |
| 2002: Daunte Culpepper |
| The season before the covers release Culpepper completed 33 touchdown passes. After the cover he threw only 14 touchdown passes and had 13 interceptions before a knee injury ended his season ended in week 11. |
| 2003: Marshall Faulk |
| The first time in six years Faulk failed to rush for over 1000 yards. Faulk never rushed for over 1000 yards again and was plagued by an ankle injury. |
| 2004: Michael Vick |
| Five days after the cover was released, Michael Vick fractured his leg. He was only able to play in the last five regular season games that season. |
| 2005: Ray Lewis |
| Ray Lewis missed the final game of the season with an injury and made no interceptions after making six the previous season. |
| 2006: Donovan McNabb |
| McNabb was injured with a sports hernia in Week 1. He later re-injured the hernia and missed the final seven games of the season. |
| 2007: Shaun Alexander |
| After missing only one game in his last 64 starts, Alexander would miss six starts due to a fractured foot. |
| 2008: Vince Young |
| Young missed his first NFL game because of an injury that season. Up until that point, Young had never missed a game due to injury. |
“We have so many exciting additions to the game this year and we want to make sure that the fans know what to expect come August 12th,” game designer Daniel Castorani wrote in an EA Producers Blog, ”I personally see Madden NFL 09 as the biggest year to year leap in the history of the franchise.”
One of the most impressive new features is the inclusion of online leagues. This mode allows for up to 32 teams to play a season online, complete with a draft, trades and online roster updates.
Game stores in the area like Gamestop let customers reserve a copy in advance. The more eager fans can (and will) buy the game at the first minute of August 12, with many stores opening at midnight for the release.
