The Most Dangerous Position in Pro Football Remains To Be The Box Cover of the Madden Game

Q. Other than being big black football players, what do Garrison Hearst, Barry Sanders, Eddie George, Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Ray Lewis, Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander all have in common?

A. They were all on the cover of Madden football when they met tragedy and had to leave the game that year.

The phenomenon is called The Madden Curse and yesterday when Madden '08 coverboy Vince Young was pulled for a "strained right quadriceps" sports fans began to mumble "Madden".

USC fans remember Young as the unstoppable Texas quarterback who almost singlehandedly beat the Trojans in the Rose Bowl a few years ago.

After Tennessee started playing their #1 draft pick regularly last year they only lost one game. This year, with Young as the starter, they only met their second loss of the season yesterday after he left the game, thanks to the curse.

At this point would anyone object if we put Osama Bin Laden on the cover of Madden '09?