Not all curses are created equal. When it comes to the kind that have befallen the players who were lucky (or unlucky) enough to find themselves featured on the cover of Madden over the years, there are those who have been fortunate enough to escape relatively unscathed and there are others who could not help but succumb to its unyielding wrath.

In an effort to determine who has been hit the hardest by the Madden Curse, and perhaps warn others who would hope to one day receive the honor, I have devised a complex scoring system to help rank all of the previous cover stars. They have been placed into three different groups based on the severity of curse, and ranked 1-10 in the following criteria:

Pre-Cover Hype (or PCH): How much potential and star power the player had in the year that he appeared on the cover.

Direct Curse Impact (or DCI): How much the player was affected by the Madden Curse in the season that he appeared on the cover.

Long-Term Curse Impact (LTCI): How much the curse lingered and impacted the player in the years following his appearance on the cover.

These will add up to the player's Total Curse Rating (or TCR).
 

18) Madden 2013 – Calvin Johnson

PCH: 6
DCI: 0
LTCI: 0
TCR: 6

Megatron came into 2012 as the best receiver in the game, though he may not have been the sexiest pick for the cover just by virtue of playing on a woeful Lions team that was never a real contender. One of only a few players to have a career year after gracing the cover of Madden, Johnson did his best to debunk the idea of the Madden Curse by breaking Jerry Rice’s record for most receiving yards in a season with 1,964. He did only score five touchdowns in his historic 2012 season and retired just a few years later, but I suppose we can’t really blame the Madden Curse for everything.
 

Beckham earned the cover thanks to the jaw-dropping one-handed catch he made against the Cowboys in his 2014 rookie season, but he had also done enough to show he was one of the most exciting young players in the league. He then came out and performed even better in 2015, successfully avoiding both the Madden Curse and the sophomore slump in the process. We could perhaps attribute his one-game suspension at the end of the season to the curse, but let’s be honest: Josh Norman getting in his head was more to blame for that one.
 

Fitzgerald shared the cover with Troy Polamalu after coming off an incredible year that saw him lead the league in receiving and dominate in the playoffs before narrowly losing to the Steelers in a memorable Super Bowl. Thankfully for him, Polamalu suffered the brunt of the Madden Curse as Fitzgerald put up respectable if not spectacular numbers in 2009, and though he has never quite reached the heights of that 2008 career year, continues to be a reliable target to this day despite his advancing age.
 

The only defensive back to make it onto the cover of Madden, Sherman was looking to follow up a season that saw him earn headlines for both his stellar play and his spirited trash-talking of Michael Crabtree as he led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl title. Though his play hardly declined at all in 2014, the Seahawks did suffer a heartbreaking Super Bowl loss against the Patriots and the Legion of Boom would never be quite the same intimidating force again.
 

Ray Lewis had already established himself as one of the most fearsome middle linebackers to ever play the game when he made the cover of Madden and had a Super Bowl title under his belt to show for it. It’s hard to argue that he had much of a down year in 2004, as he was named an All-Pro and amassed stats that were not too far off from some of his best seasons. But if you’re looking hard for evidence of a curse, there is the fact that he went without an interception for the first time in his career, and the Ravens missed the playoffs. Also, he was injured and played in just six games the following year.

The Mildly Cursed
 

13) Madden 2011 – Drew Brees

PCH: 7
DCI: 3
LTCI: 1
TCR: 11

Another player to be named to the Madden cover the year after completing a successful Super Bowl run, Brees didn’t exactly have a bad year in 2010 but there were slight symptoms of the Madden Curse to be found upon closer inspection. For one thing, he threw a career high 22 interceptions throughout the season, and perhaps worst of all, ended up losing in the playoffs to a Seahawks team that had stumbled its way to a division-winning 7-9 record. Brees still hasn’t sniffed the Super Bowl since.
 

In perhaps the weirdest case of the Madden Curse to be evaluated, Favre was selected to grace the cover in his Packers uniform after announcing his retirement, only to later rescind his retirement to play for the Jets that season. He didn’t play too badly considering his age at the time, though the Jets would miss the playoffs after losing four of their last five games with Favre playing poorly through a torn biceps tendon. But any curse that was there didn’t hang around too long as Favre came within a few plays of making another Super Bowl as a Minnesota Viking just one year later.
 

Eddie George made the cover after establishing himself as a premier running back, and was just a year removed from an appearance in the Super Bowl that saw the Titans come up just a yard short of winning it all. On the surface, it’s hard to argue he really suffered too much from any curse in 2000 as he had his best statistical year with 1,509 yards rushing and 14 TDs, but the Titans lost in the playoffs to the Ravens despite dominating them in the game and George was never quite the same afterwards, beginning a slow decline before retiring a few years later.
 

Many believed Marshall Faulk still had plenty left in the tank following a 2001 season that saw him play a major role in leading the Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” to the Super Bowl, including the Rams, who offered him a lucrative new contract prior to the 2002 season. However, Faulk began to show the first signs of wear and tear in 2002, and though he’d still rush for nearly 1,000 yards and catch 80 balls out of the backfield, it was a year that clearly marked the beginning of the end.
 

It wasn’t as if Gronk was any stranger to injury when he became the most recent NFL star to be featured on the cover of Madden, but the hope was that he could follow up dominant 2014 and 2015 seasons with another healthy and productive campaign. Of course, that wasn’t to be after an Earl Thomas hit caused a pulmonary contusion, and when he returned to action a couple of weeks later, he suffered a herniated disc that would necessitate season-ending back surgery. The jury’s still out on whether Gronk can return to form next year, but for now we’ll assume the best for the long-term curse effects.
 

Madden tapped McNabb for its cover following an Eagles’ loss in the Super Bowl in which McNabb’s conditioning came into question on a failed final drive, and as relations with Terrell Owens were starting to become strained. Though his 2005 season began promisingly enough, things quickly went south as he struggled while playing through a sore thumb and a sports hernia, and he was finally placed on injured reserve in November after aggravating the hernia while trying to make a tackle after throwing an interception. All told, his career didn’t suffer all that much as he would go on to have several more good years in Philadelphia.
 

Sharing the Madden cover with Larry Fitzgerald after winning the battle in the Super Bowl, the perennial Pro Bowl safety Polamalu may have lost the war the following year in 2009. While Fitzgerald continued to thrive, Polamalu played in only five games that year thanks to a sprained MCL in his left knee. He’d return to form over the next couple years, spared for the most part from any long-term consequences.

The Wickedly Damned
 

6) Madden 2008 – Vince Young

PCH: 8
DCI: 4
LTCI: 7
TCR: 19

Young may have been bestowed the honor of the Madden cover after just one year in the NFL, but after an illustrious college career and a promising rookie campaign, it appeared as if he was destined for greatness. The Madden Curse didn’t seem to be all that strong initially, with Young leading the Titans to a 10-6 record and a playoff berth in 2007, despite throwing 17 regular season interceptions to just nine touchdowns in the process. But perhaps in retrospect the curse was only gaining power or laying in wait, as Young was injured the following season, then benched amid clashes with head coach Jeff Fisher, and is now in the process of trying to make a comeback by playing in the CFL.
 

Unlike Vince Young, Culpepper had already pretty well established himself as an elite NFL quarterback following his first year as a starter in which he threw for nearly 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns in Minnesota. But after making the Madden cover, the curse took hold and Culpepper struggled through the first 11 games before going down with a season-ending knee injury. The curse would linger the following year before he rebounded nicely and shook it off by every appearance, but perhaps there’s a reason why he never made a Super Bowl in his career.
 

Things couldn’t have been looking better for Alexander when he made the Madden cover following an MVP season that saw the Seahawks fall to the Steelers in the Super Bowl and earned him a monster new contract. But Alexander would break his left foot in week 3 of the 2006 season, forcing him to miss six games, and he would see his yards per carry decline by more than a yard and a half. It was perhaps a sign of things to come as he failed to stay healthy in 2007 as well, and the Seahawks released him at the end of the season.
 

There was no one more exciting in the NFL than Michael Vick when EA made the no-brainer decision to place him on the cover, coming off a 2002 season where he showcased the deadly combo of precision passing and electric speed. Perhaps sensing his impending greatness, the Madden Curse cut him down in the preseason, causing Vick to miss the first 11 games of the year with a broken fibula. Of course, Vick would go on to fulfill his promise as an NFL superstar, but he’d never get to a Super Bowl, and his career was derailed when he notoriously served both a suspension and jail time for his role in a dog fighting ring.
 

Let’s face it: Peyton Hills was probably not the greatest choice for the Madden cover. Yes, he’d come off a season where he surprised everyone by rushing for over a 1,000 yards in 2010, but he was never really primed to be a superstar. Still, few people expected such a precipitous drop-off the following year when injuries -- including strep throat -- caused him to see action in only 10 games. The curse wasn’t done with him yet though; Hillis saw only limited playing time with the Chiefs and Giants following his short-lived stint in Cleveland, and his career was over just as quickly as it had started.
 

Perhaps it makes sense that the worst Madden Curse was the one that started it all -- the origin story and cautionary tale. While Madden 99 featured John Madden himself on the cover for its console release, Hearst appeared on a PAL version of the game and would live to regret it. After bouncing around the league with a few different teams, Hearst had found a home in San Francisco and made a name for himself by rushing for more than 1,000 yards in 1997. Even after appearing on the cover, he had his best season in 1998, rushing for 1,570 yards and leading the 49ers to a Wild Card win against the Packers. But against the Falcons in the divisional round, Hearst suffered a gruesome ankle injury that would eventually cause a bone in his foot to die and led many to believe his career was over. He wouldn’t play again for two years, and though he won NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award for the 2001 season, one wonders how his career might have been different if he had not been the first (and worst) victim of the Madden Curse.