With Calvin Johnson in the finals of the Madden 13 cover vote, there has been a lot of talk about the "Madden curse." Because of it, there seems to be a split between Detroit Lions fans. About half of Lions fans want Johnson on the cover, whereas the other half would rather see Cam Newton triumph and be subject to the "curse." This is actually a pretty big change from just a few weeks ago, as a poll back then had nearly two-thirds of voters on the keep-Calvin-off-the-cover bandwagon.
Why the sudden change? I think some of those who believe in the curse are coming around to the idea of Johnson being on the cover. Nate Burleson, for example, believes in the curse, but he wants his teammate to win the cover vote.
"If any guy can break the curse, it's Calvin," Burleson said. "This dude is a monster. He's strong enough to break tackles, he can break a curse."
That's certainly one way to look at it. The flip side, of course, is that there really isn't a curse, which seems to be the view held in the Lions front office, as evidenced by what team president Tom Lewand had to say about it last week.
"I was glad to see Calvin beat Aaron Rodgers in the semifinals. I would rather see him beat Aaron Rodgers twice this season on the field. The exposure this contest gets Calvin and the Lions is great for our fans. Thankfully, none of us are very superstitious and don't believe in the curse."
At the end of the day, I really don't have a problem with either point of view. To those who don't want Johnson on the cover because of the supposed curse, that's fine. I was actually on that side of the argument a few weeks ago. Now that the possibility of him actually being on the cover is staring us straight in the face, I hope Johnson wins the contest. He seems excited about the possibility of being on the cover, and like Burleson said, if anybody can break the "curse," it's certainly Megatron.
Besides, do you really want Johnson to lose to this guy?
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