Will Calvin Johnson, Jr. Feel The Curse?

On March 7^th EA Sports opened up voting allowing fans to select the player for the cover of Madden 13, which will be released August 28th. What began with 64 players was whittled down to only two, Lions WR Calvin Johnson, Jr. and Panther’s QB Cam Newton. Nearly 20 million people voted over the 7 week period.

At the announcement ceremony on April 25^th in New York City’s Time Square both Newton and Johnson, Jr. stood center stage as the countdown began on the big screen overlooking the square. When the picture came up showing Johnson, Jr. Cam Newton seemed quite puzzled, he had been acting as if he had prior knowledge that he was going to win but the fans spoke differently.

Now that the cover has been selected the question of the “Curse” will begin. Since 2000, when Barry Sanders appeared in the background, there has been some sort of fall off with each player. Some have been minimal, such as the case of Sanders who retired, while others were more serious like Donovan McNabb having a sports hernia followed by tearing his ACL the next season.

Calvin Johnson, Jr. had an awesome season last year catching 96 passes for 1,681 yards and 16 touchdowns, his best season so far. I guess this is a question that will have to wait until the end of December following the Lions Dec 30^th game against the Bears.