The Madden Curse.

What began as a coincidence has come to be characterized as a curse.

Shaun Alexander, the reigning NFL MVP, is the sixth consecutive player whose career took a turn for the worse the year they appeared on the cover of the popular "Madden" football video game.

"We work so closely with these athletes, and we root for them to succeed. It's so disappointing that this keeps happening," said Chris Erb, director of marketing for EA Sports.

The Seattle Seahawks running back has a broken left foot and may be out for a month. He said this summer he didn't believe in curses and wasn't superstitious.

"Curse or no curse, everybody, and I mean everybody, wants to be on that cover," Alexander said.

2001 ("Madden 2002"): Daunte Culpepper: Missed the final five games with a knee injury, but the curse kicked in well before the injury. He went from being tied for the league lead with 33 TD passes in 2000 to having almost as many interceptions (13) as touchdown passes (14) in 2001.

2002 ("Madden 2003"): Marshall Faulk: Rushed for 1,000 yards in seven of his first eight seasons, but he hasn't surpassed that mark since appearing on the cover of the game.

2003 ("Madden 2004"): Michael Vick: Suffered a broken right leg and missed the first 11 games.

2004 ("Madden 2005"): Ray Lewis: The Ravens' linebacker didn't have an interception for the only time in his career. He missed the regular-season finale because of an injured wrist.

2005 ("Madden 2006"): Donovan McNabb: After the Eagles slipped to a 4-5 record, McNabb missed the final seven games with a sports hernia.

2006 ("Madden 2007"): Shaun Alexander: Gained 187 yards in the first three games, his slowest start since 2002, and now is out indefinitely with a broken foot.

I think the curse of Madden is having to fork out over $50 for pretty much what is only an expansion pack of features and roster updates.