Prior to 1999, every annual installment of the Madden NFL series primarily featured John Madden on its cover. In 1999, Electronic Arts selected Garrison Hearst to appear on the PAL version's cover, and has since featured one of the league’s top players on every annual installment. Since then, certain players have experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury. For example, quarterback Michael Vick appeared on the cover of Madden NFL 2004, and suffered a leg injury that sidelined him for most of the 2003 season. Donovan McNabb was featured on the cover of Madden 06, on November 19th, 2006 in a game against Tennessee, McNabb tore his ACL while attempting to scramble out of bounds which left him sidelined for the remainder of the season. Running back Shaun Alexander, then the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player, was featured on the cover of Madden NFL 2007, and sustained a foot injury that caused him to miss six starts As a result, Alexander’s rushing statistics were substantially less than those from the previous season, and he never returned to true form.[23] Madden 08's cover featured Vince Young, the starting quarterback of the Tennessee Titans. On September 7th 2008 Vince Young sustained a knee injury which put him out of the game. He would never regain his starting quarterback position after he was relieved by backup quarterback Kerry Collins.[24] Brett Favre was on the cover of Madden 09 and he was subsequently injured with a torn biceps ligament and his performance declined during the last six games of the 2008 NFL Season.[25] On September 10th 2009, Strong Safety Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers sprained his MCL in the season opener against the Tennessee Titans.[26] Polamalu shares the cover of Madden 10 with Larry Fitzgerald.
In 2007, GameSpot and CNBC reported that a large number of LaDainian Tomlinson's fans, who believed in the Madden Curse, were strongly opposed to EA Sports' initial decision to feature him on the 2008 cover, so much that a fan created SaveLTfromMadden.com to voice their disdain.[30][31][32] Tomlinson eventually declined the offer, but stated it was solely due to contract negotiations.[32]
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