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Uh, oh. Vince Young is going to be on the cover of Madden NFL 08. Worse, for Titans fans like me, Young and his agent don't respect the power of the Madden cover jinx. Said agent Major Adams to the Nashville Tennessean, "We don't believe in no jinx." No, no, no, please tell me the VY camp didn't just say this. Thumb their nose at the jinx like that? Don't they know that if this were a movie, the next scene would always feature Major Adams clutching his throat and suddenly toppling over in a dark corridor? Is VY next?
As if that quote weren't enough, it also left me wondering how anyone could entrust their contract negotiations and athletic representation to someone who uses a double negative. But then, out of the melancholic wanderings of my football-fan mind, what should appear but double-negative hope? After all, doesn't this double negative cancel itself out? Isn't the practical impact of Major Adams' double negative that Young actually does believe in the jinx? If so, I appreciate the accidental acknowledgement of the Madden cover danger. Subtle, delicate and artsy, like the silhouette of a nipple that allows a movie to retain its PG-13 rating. Well played, Major "Double Negative" Adams, well played indeed.
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| SPiN graphic illustration/Roland Liwag |
All of this fear doesn't mean I haven't ridiculed the concept of a Madden curse before. I based my ridicule primarily upon the fact that in order for there to be a curse, someone has to first curse the game. I even said I was going to go ahead and be that person who cursed the game in Dec. 2006. Then I didn't follow through on my curse threat because, quite honestly, I forgot about it. Thank God I'm forgetful because I would have accidentally been cursing Vince Young. And then I wouldn't have been able to show my face at the Titans stadium for some time. Trouble indeed.
But what's even more troubling about Young being honored with the Madden cover is that it wasn't as if the 2007 football season was going to be an easy one for Vince Young to begin with. The Titans have already managed to lose his top two wide receiving targets, Drew Bennett and Bobby Wade, to free agency along with starting running back Travis Henry. No other team in the NFL has even come close to removing as many offensive weapons from their quarterback's arsenal as the Titans have. Now it's altogether possible that Young is not only going to have to master completing a higher percentage of passes to his receivers, he may also have to pass the ball to himself and accept running back duties. Young is like Mel Gibson in Braveheart -- swinging a sword around his head with all his might. Only he's charging into a battalion of tanks. This just means the crafty Young, who refuses to accept defeat, will have all the more opportunity to get injured and fulfill the ominous jinx.
That's because VY (watch him play more than four games and you'll call him by his initials too) is an electric talent who is probably more exciting to watch than any player in the NFL today, but he certainly wasn't ready to take over the Madden mantle. Not on the eve of his second year in the NFL after only starting 13 games in his rookie season. Not when he's already got to shoulder more offensive burden than any second-year player in the league and not when everything has gone so comparatively well for VY thus far. Maybe next year or the year after, when he continued to develop his talents and blossomed into the more complete player he's going to become, but not now. Not now, when being a Titans fan already means you've spent the entire offseason waiting for Pacman to get into more trouble. Not now, when we already know that one-in-five quarterbacks are going to get injured each season. Not now, when the jinx has been effective for six years running.
Can't someone else step forward and stem the onrushing tide of jinxdom? Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, a guy who's already proven he can win a championship. What do they really have to lose?
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| Is this what's in store for VY? Clay Travis hopes not. (Getty Images) |
But that doesn't mean that some fans haven't taken the jinx seriously enough to lobby against their favorite players being selected for the cover. In fact, I'm not going to lie, when I saw the headline in the Nashville newspapers on Monday afternoon breaking the story that VY had been selected for the cover of the game, I audibly groaned. And at the same time that I was groaning, some fans of Peyton Manning, LaDainian Tomlinson, Tom Brady and countless other NFL stars who were rumored to be cover material, were clapping their hands and singing the lyrics to Kumbaya. Or something like that. Don't believe me? Witness this grassroots petition among LaDainian Tomlinson's fans to help keep their favorite player from being selected for Madden NFL 08:
The petition states as follows:
"To: Electronic Arts This petition has been made to try and stop LaDainian Tomlinson from appearing on the cover of Madden NFL 08. With his record breaking 2006-2007 season, LaDainian Tomlinson is almost a lock to appear on the cover. But with the glory, comes the consequence. Being victim to the Madden Curse.
With everyone's help, I plan to forward this petition to Electronic Arts to try to convince them to choose another candidate for the cover of Madden NFL 08."
By the time I checked out this site, more than 1,000 people had already signed the petition. So you can imagine I was interested to see how Young acquitted himself when he appeared last night on Jimmy Kimmel to unveil the new cover of the game. Especially after the horrible double negative quote from his agent announcing the Madden cover and responding to the jinx. What I initially saw did nothing to allay my fears.
