Madden Curse Returns as San Francisco 49er Christian McCaffrey Out for 4 Games [IGN]

The infamous Madden curse appears to be back as Madden NFL 25 cover star Christian McCaffrey of the San Francisco 49ers has been ruled out for four games.

Sky News reported on McCaffrey’s shift to the injured reserve list due to calf tightness and achilles tendinitis one month after he graced the cover of the latest American football entry from EA Sports, which arrived August 13, 2024.

McCaffrey could return as early as October 10 to play against the Seattle Seahawks so hopefully this injury scare isn’t too serious, but it does bring the so-called Madden curse to mind. This fan theory suggests any athlete who appears on the cover of Madden NFL suffers a downturn in their career, either from an injury or generally underperforming.

CBS Sports analyzed the history of the Madden curse upon McCaffrey’s announcement as 2024’s cover star, deeming that, between 2000 and 2024, 58% of players struggled after appearing on the cover. McCaffrey may tick that percentage up a touch, however.

The injury hopefully won’t derail McCaffrey’s career or the 49ers’ season, of course, and definitely won’t affect his appearance on the cover of Madden NFL 25.

The last memorable instance of a major change to the cover of a sports title was perhaps with NBA 2K18, when star Kyrie Irving demanded a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Boston Celtics after 2K Sports had already printed the game’s promotional material. It therefore had to order the Cavaliers version scrapped and reshoot and reprint every cover with Irving in Boston Celtics gear.

IGN’s Madden NFL 25 review returned a 6/10. We said: “There are a lot of on-field improvements to like in Madden NFL 25, but most were long overdue, and they don’t offset all the same problems that weren’t addressed elsewhere.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.