Researching this topic on curses interested me from the beginning and the conversation pertaining to something or someone being cursed could become controversial.  The actual definition of curse, according to the dictionary, “is the expression of a wish that misfortune, evil, doom, befall a person, group” (Curse).   Could it be a curse or just a fluke?  Some people believe sport curses have been the deciding factor in a professional team or player’s season.

According to research a curse begins by someone speaking a negative thought and strong desires for bad things to happen.  While many people believe in this type of punishment, individuals feel they’re calling on some force or supernatural being to punish you.  Actually, from the research collected the curser has to be careful with this form of hate because it can very well backfire creating an opposite effect (Guiley).

Many people feel different about curses that possibly changed the outcome of a cities championship game, season, or even a star player’s productivity that current year.  There are so many curses related to sports that are still the most talked about subjects throughout the country.  Many fans are dedicated to sports, and what happens could affect certain fans and franchises for many years.

One of the most famous curses in history would be the Red Sox decision to sell Babe Ruth to the Yankee’s in 1920.  Before the Red Sox’s decided to make this move under Ruth Lefty Gomez, he stated “Ruth was a circus, a play and a movie all rolled into one, kids adored him, men idolized him, and women loved him”(Gomez).   Babe Ruth joined the Red Sox in 1914.  A year later the Sox’s won the World Series’ in 1915, and then again in 1916, and 1918.  After he was sold to the New York Yankee’s, the Red Sox did not win another World Series title for 86 years.  Ruth was crushed by his sell to the Yankees.  Also, the fans in Boston were angry because that started what was said to be the curse of Boston, and the Red Sox.  His fame put fans in seats in New York while attendance with the Red Sox dropped significantly (The Baseball Page).

Another popular belief related to sport gossip is the Madden Curse, many people started joking about popular athletes who appeared on the cover of EA sports MADDEN football game. Some player’s either suffered a serious injury or a dramatic downward turn in their performance transpired.  The year was 1999 when players began being featured on the cover.  Players were solicited because they were at the climax of their careers.

The Cleveland Browns running back Payton Hillis was selected over Green Bay’s quarterback Aaron Rogers.  Rogers said “ he didn’t believe in the curse and that he wanted to win this tournament, but I can’t tell you how many Packers fans I’ve heard from who were actively voting for Hillis in fear of the curse”(Rogers).

Here are player’s that became part of this famous debate, fluke, or curse, and are still discussed today.  In 1999, Garrison Hearst was breaking records, but badly broke his ankle in a divisional playoff game.  Hearst missed two full seasons and was never the same again.  The year of 2000, Dorsey Levens broke his ankle midway through the season.  As a result, the Packers missed the playoffs after appearing in back to back Super Bowl’s.  The following year, Eddie George was chosen and he went on to have an astronomical year.  He led his team to the divisional finals where he lost control of a pass that was intercepted and became the game winning touchdown.  The next year, George was injured for most of the season.  After George suffered his setback, the next year in 2002, Dante Culpepper was being looked at as a potential MVP because of his accomplishments the prior year.  The Vikings were expected to become a playoff team once again but they went 4-7 and Culpepper received an injury curtailing the quarterbacks season.  The Vikings finished 5-11.  This is when people actually began speaking strongly of the Madden curse (Fleming).

It seems as if every time someone is on the cover of Madden it does appear according to my research that that person who is in their prime gets hurt.  Speaking of prime Marshall Faulk was at his peak when he was selected to embrace the cover in 2003.  A nagging ankle injury caused for him to rush under 1,000 yards which was not his normal total rushing yards for the entire year.  This came after his four straight seasons of 1,300 yards.  Micheal Vick had a great year turning a horrible team into a playoff team the year before 2004.  After being selected, he broke his leg and played only a total of five games for the year.

  At this point, the Madden curse became more than a joke, it became an urban legend.  The list goes on and on.  As you can defiantly see, this is quite spooky.  In 2005, Ray Lewis-torn hamstring, next it was Donovan McNabb’s turn, he commented on the curse by saying that “it might be a trend, but I don’t believe in the curse at all” (Mcnabb).  He suffered a groin injury in the first game that required surgery which kept him out for the remainder of the season.

How about front page news now?  Now at this point EA sports began offering more compensation to appear on the cover.  The year is 2007 and Shawn Alexander came off a record season with his team the Seattle Seahawks playing in the Super Bowl the prior year.  Alexander missed six games with a broken foot and never was the same running back thereafter.  Vince Young appeared in 2008 he suffered a knee injury, 2009 Bret Favre played with a torn biceps with no success that year, 2010 Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu appeared together.  Fitzgerald rib injury, Polamalu sprained Medial Collateral Ligament, wow!   That was extremely interesting, but this next curse might be just as intriguing (Fleming).

The city of Philadelphia had a pretty adamant founder.  There was apparently a policy not allowing any building of any kind to be built higher than the statue of the founder William Penn which is positioned on top of City Hall.  Ironically, in 1987 a building was completed that was 400 feet taller than City Hall.  The completion of One Liberty Place upset Penn and he responded by cursing Philly’s pro sports teams.  According to research over the next 20 years, the Flyers Hockey team lost the Stanley Cup twice (1987, 1997).  Also, (1993) the 76ers came up short in the NBA finals (2001) after that the football team the (Eagles) lost the Super Bowl (2004).  The city might want to consider what William Penn says regarding his statue wishes.

The Comcast Center was built in 2007 and became the tallest building.  Workers came up with a plan to break the curse by attaching a figurine of Penn.  The next year, the Phillies won the World Series.  Since we are speaking of baseball that brings me to my next curse, it was said the fans implemented this one (Listverse).

  The curse of Coogan’s Bluff accrued when the Giants left the Polo grounds for San Francisco in 1957, it was said that irritated and betrayed fans reportedly put a spell on the team.  The spell was for the Giants to never succeed in winning a World Series away from New York.  Prior to the move, the New York Giants won the Series in the year 1905, 1921, 1922, 1933, and again in 1954.  Despite the league pennants obtained in 1962, 1989 and 2002, also in those Series, games were at halt because of severe weather.  Nature was responsible and put a standstill on game 6 of the ’62 Series which was relevant for three days and game 3 of the ’89 Series was postponed 10 days by due to a strong earthquake.  As a result, Candlestick Park was damaged severely.

The last game played in New York, a bleacher fan said “Willie had of hit one then the whole send off would have been a success.  Now it’s a flop” (Fan).   According to reports, fans even vandals bound the left and right field bleacher sidewalls, and the clubhouse, they begged to see Willie Mays one final time.  Fans were extremely angry and took it personally.  Some reportedly tore up the ball park causing extensive damage to the field and stands.  Fans were exceptionally angry at Giants owner Horace Stoneham.  The hex the fans apparently put on the Giants followed them for years.  The bad luck lasted 56 years.  The San Francisco Giants won the Series in 2010 (Listverse).

Many people love to wear Nike shoes.  Actually, Nike shoes are worn by a lot of people playing sports.  Almost every sport has at least one athlete sponsored by Nike.  There is one particular sport that believes Nike has cursed the player’s.  During this research, soccer popped up and the way some player’s feel about their famous commercial.

Nike’s commercial was described by the media as being extremely brilliant.  The name of this commercial was Nike Write the Future, and many feel player’s involved had an early World Cup exit.  A famous Player named Roger Federer did not do well with his Wimbledon hopes either.  As a result, that could come across as bad business for sport fans, because who wants to buy sports apparel that’s possibly possessed by evil spirits?

You must understand Nike the swoosh inventors did not give up though.  Of course, Nike has a gigantic budget and as I stated tons of sponsored player’s.  The company continued to make those Write the Future commercials and finally Nike had a sponsored player being represented in the World Cup final.

Danny Jordaan, head of the World Cup 2010 organizing committee feels that the Nike commercial is a small issue.  He stated, “Players are burnout instead, also note some drop out of college and work in the fast food industry, burnout.  Jordaan is worried about players playing too many matches and when the World Cup comes around players are exhausted.”  Player freshness is always an issue at the World Cup,” said Jordann. “How many matches can the body of a player take?  It seems at the end of a season the body cannot take the pressure and extra energy is required for the World Cup” (Jordann).   A few names floated around that could have been totally exhausted and they are Wayne Rooney, and Cristiano Ronaldo.  You would not believe this next curse Nike was accused of being involved with (Sports Yahoo).

We all have watched a basketball game, and noticed a thick solid line called a half court line.  After researching this incident, a game has never been decided on a court violation until this particular situation.  This is the curse of Creighton and the missing midcourt line.  Unfortunately, this ultimately was the deciding factor in the CBIC Championship game for Creighton.

The new design is called “Kilkenny” floor at the new Matthew Knight Arena.  It features a Print Shop-style border of trees decorating the entire outer portion of the court, and giant midcourt logo and overabundance acknowledging the donors who made the new design possible.  Therefore, it really was not any real room for a normal solid half court line.  According to reporter Brandon Vogel, “people complained about this court quirk previously and I typically thought those people were overly litigious, turns out they were right and I’m guessing the Ducks will have a proper mid-court line by the time next season starts” (Vogel).

Nike was responsible for this new thought and design.  The game was at a tie with 20 seconds to go and the Jay’s Antoine Young was controlling the clock near half court to set up what appeared to be Creighton’s final play.  Only 17 seconds remaining, he unknowingly dribbled over the barely recognizable half-court line.  The Jay’s turned the ball over to the Ducks who immediately hit the game winner.  Dating back to the 1950’s their have been many celebrities and sports leaders that embraced the cover of The Sports Illustrated.

Many speculations have circled around the extremely popular curse of this magazine.  This is believed to be a powerful SI jinx that allegedly has turned sport champions and future legends into crippled has-beens, phenom’s into flops and successful teams into losers.  Alexander Wolff a writer devoted his Jan 21 SI cover story to trying to settle the issue and a great question of our time.  Does being on the cover of the world’s most famous magazine really bring bad luck?  Wolff stated “it is impossible to prove or disprove the jinx without an enormous amount of real statistical research” (Wolff).  He also elaborated on the fact that the superstition didn’t hurt the fortunes of SI’s top 3 cover athletes Michael Jordan (51 times), Muhammad Ali (38) and Jack Nicklaus (23).

On the other hand, the list of season- ending injuries, losing streaks, shocking upsets chokes, batting slumps, divorces, family tragedies, and fatal car crashes suffered by individuals and teams since August 1954.  According to SI’s own researchers, 37 percent of the time bad luck or a Jinx strikes a person or professional team within two weeks of a cover appearance.  Also, 12 percent suffered serious injuries ending seasons or careers, and even death.  Some fan’s totally embraced their sport hero’s being on the cover of SI.  A fan named Erica Rauch said “I have to get 150 of them.”  Rauch is a Packers fan.  This was when Brett Favre was going to appear on the SI’s Sportsman of the Year” (Rauch).  Favre did suffer through one of his worst games of the season after making the cover in 2008.  The Packers lost to Chicago after Favre’s front page appearance.  After that, Rauch said, “I’m a big fan, “I knew the cover was of Brett Favre, and I wasn’t going to miss out” (Rauch).

Four subscriptions are released in a one year period.  Just to give you an overview by decade of the tragedy or misfortunes associated with the SI magazine.  Skier Jill Kinmont appeared on the issue in 1-31-1955, the week the issue was on stands during a practice run she struck a tree and was paralyzed from the neck down.  MEXICO’S YOUNG FIREBALL, Ricardo Rodriguez dies in a fiery crash later that year he appeared on 3-26-1962.  The Minnesota Vikings were on the issue on 1-5-1970 favored by two touchdowns in the Super Bowl; lose 23-7 to the Kansas City Chiefs.  In 1983, July 25, Tom Watson appeared on the cover for winning his fifth British Open title; he finishes in a tie for 47th in the PGA Championship, his next tournament.  The year was 1999, and Dennis Rodman had his turn and a week after he missed four games and then takes a leave of absence to deal with personal matters.  He files for divorce on April 6, and LA releases him on April 15.   Days after the date 3-5-2001 when Nomar Garciaparra of the Boston Red Sox appeared on SI’s cover it was announced that he split a tendon in his right wrist (Voget).

Overall nobody can really say whether a curse actually created a lot of mishaps and caused fatal things to happen.  Without hard core facts, it could be that these are just situations of how the cards landed making things seem quite spooky and make you wonder.

Works Cited
Fleming, Ryan. “The Madden Curse.” August 31, 2010.
Grove, Daryl. “Sports Yahoo.” 10 Sport Cursed (July 11).
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft. New York, 1989.
“Listverse.” curses (April 15, 2008): listverse.com.
Mcshane, Larry. “NY Daily News.” Sport Curses (January 18, 2008).
Montville, Leigh. The Big Bam: the life and times of Babe Ruth. New York: The Doubleday Broadway, 2006.
Page, The Baseball. “The Baseball Page.” http://www.thebaseballpage.com. n.d.
“Pittsburg Tribune.” Sport Curses (April 15, 2008).
“Spooky Curses.” Sports Illustrated (June 15, 2009): sportsillustrated.com.
Voget, Brandon. “The Reader.” Sports Illustrated Curse (2006): thereader.com.

Originally Submitted As An English Comp 2 Research Paper
Research Conducted by Author/Publisher
BraineMatter AKA Max AKA DeWayne White
Max Pro Check Publishing®
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