Does The Spanish Madden Have A Curse Too?

Everyone knows about the supposed Madden video game curse. The guy on the cover, the story goes, has a better chance of getting injured or having a down year.

We thought we'd have nothing to talk about when Electronic Artsagreed to put a retired Brett Favre on the cover. But, thankfully, Favre of course is out of retirement and that gives us another chance to see if the curse will continue for another year.

(While we're at it, is it fair to attribute Vince Young's current situation to being last year's cover athlete?)

Well, we here at Sports Biz are not just watching the Brett Favre. We've also got our eyes on Chicago Bears offensive lineman Roberto Garza. Why? Well because EA released its Spanish version of the game today and Garza is on the cover.

Madden En Espanol

Everyone always gets out of the Madden curse by saying that quarterbacks and running backs have a better chance of getting injured than other position players. (In the past nine years, only one player--Ray Lewis--wasn't a quarterback or running back.)

But the Spanish version of the game has to have a Hispanic player on the cover, so it forces EA to vary the positions a bit. Last year, it was San Diego Chargers defensive end Luis Castillo and this year, it's Garza.

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Should we need to remind you, last year, Castillo (he's a Northwestern guy so this hurts me) had his worst year, only starting nine games and ending up with 2.5 sacks after totaling seven in as many games in 2006.

Garza will be a tough task to follow. Because offensive lineman don't have the same type of stats (what are we going to grade him out like the coaches?), Garza will have to get hurt in order for us to conclude that there's a Madden "en Espanol" curse.

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