So Mark Ingram is the cover athlete for EA Sports' NCAA Football 12, and the cover of the game was revealed on ESPN First Take this morning. That's all well and good — nice touch, EA, getting that script Alabama A glove in the picture — but does it bode well for his rookie season in the NFL? You know about the Madden curse; let's examine the NCAA Football cover curse.
Mark Ingram Is EA Sports’ NCAA Football ‘12 Cover Athlete; Is There A Curse?
The game series dates back to Bill Walsh College Football, which debuted in 1994, but it was the 1996 edition of the series, College Football USA 97 (yes, 97, video games are weird), that first put a former college athlete on the cover, Nebraska’s Tommie Frazier. In order, here are the subsequent cover athletes.
1997: Florida’s Danny Wuerffel.
1998: Michigan's Charles Woodson.
1999: Texas' Ricky Williams.
2000: Alabama's Shaun Alexander.
2001: Florida State's Chris Weinke.
2002: Oregon's Joey Harrington.
2003: USC's Carson Palmer.
2004: Pittsburgh's Larry Fitzgerald.
2005: Michigan's Desmond Howard, introducing a "Road to the Heisman Trophy" single-player mode.
2006: USC's Reggie Bush.
2007: Boise State’s Jared Zabransky.
2008: Five covers included Arkansas' Darren McFadden, Boston College's Matt Ryan, Cal's DeSean Jackson, West Virginia's Owen Schmitt, and the Michigan State mascot, Sparty.
2009: Four covers included Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree, Utah's Brian Johnson, Texas' Brian Orakpo, and USC's Mark Sanchez.
2010: Florida's Tim Tebow.
Run down that list, and you’ll find a lot of Pro Bowlers and a number of misses. One thing you’re not going to find a lot of Super Bowl winners.
The only three players to appear on an NCAA Football cover and win an NFL title are Woodson, Howard, and Bush — so, clearly, being a Heisman Trophy winner from Michigan and bouncing around the NFL to the Green Bay Packers inures a player from whatever curse may exist.
As for Ingram, well, not getting an entire rookie season in the NFL would be curse enough, right?
See More:
