How long has the "madden curse" existed?

Question

How long has the "madden curse" existed?

Answer 1

In 1999, Electronic Arts selected Garrison Hearst to appear on the 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 2004, and suffered a leg injury that sidelined him for most of the 2004 season. Also, in 2006, Donovan McNabb QB of the Philadelphia Eagles had surgery to repair his sports hernia missed the majority of the season. This was the same year he appeared on the Madden cover. In a similar example, 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.