the vynsane asylum

With the Red Sox having broken their curse in 2004, the Madden Curse might be the most notable curse left in sports. The theory goes that any player who appears on the cover of EA's Madden video game will soon suffer a debilitating injury and/or suddenly stop being good at football. There are numerous instances to be cited, and a lot of people otherwise rational people believe in it.

If you're one of them, you might want to stay away from Brett Favre for about a year or so. He no longer has a football career that can be damaged, so who knows how the Madden gods are going to choose to apply their wrath.

Maybe Favre goes hunting and accidentally shoots the family dog. Maybe the love triangle between Favre, John Madden, and Peter King finally blows up, leaving all three men with nothing but a broken heart and a mirror in which to tearfully sing I Will Survive.

Maybe Aaron Rogers has the greatest season any quarterback has ever had, and leads the Packers to a 19-0 season and a Super Bowl victory, completely replacing Favre in the hearts and minds of the Green Bay faithful.

Okay, that last one's pretty unlikely.

But I'm not one of the people who subscribes to the theory of the Madden Curse. There are no curses in sports. The Red Sox lost to the Yankees all those years because the Yankees were better, and because they were afraid. The Cubs' troubles have nothing to do with a goat. Curses are excuses.

Eddie George fell off because the Titans worked him like a rented mule the year before. Daunte Culpepper fell off because his success was an illusion in the first place. Michael Vick got hurt because he was always injury-prone, thanks in part to his run-first approach to quarterbacking. Marshall Faulk had to get old sometime. Donovan McNabb didn't suffer from the Madden Curse as much as he suffered from the Having Terrell Owens As A Teammate Curse. And Shaun Alexander, like Marshall Faulk, also had to get old sometime.

The other two Madden cover boys, Ray Lewis and Vince Young, defied whatever "curse" exists. Ray Lewis had a 140-tackle year after being on the cover, and Vince Young's quarterback rating actually rose four points in the year he was on the cover.

It's a fun little theory, though. If Brett Favre comes down with Lupus or something, perhaps I'll reconsider.

Did you buy an EA football game between 2003 and 2012? You might have some money coming to you -- even more than you thought.
Recent modifications to the class-action settlement EA made regarding the games could triple the amount paid out to claimants, reports Polygon. Under the new terms, people will receive $20.37 per game, as opposed to $6.79, if they bought a copy for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube or Windows PC. Those who bought a version for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii will see $5.85 per game, instead of $1.95.
Those amounts aren't set in stone, it's worth noting. EA agreed to cap payments at $27 million, meaning if too many people file a claim, the totals could go down.
It turns out not that many people either knew -- or cared -- about the rebates initially. While the cutoff date to add your name (and address) to the claim was March 15, that date has now been pushed out until May 15.
"The Court modified the distribution plan to ensure that Settlement Class Members received as much money as possible from the settlement fund," said the notification. "The amount of money being returned to Settlement Class Members was less than expected because fewer than anticipated Settlement Class Members submitted claims prior to the original close of the claims period (i.e., prior to March 5, 2013), and Electronic Arts had fewer names and physical addresses for nonclaiming Settlement Class Members than the parties originally believed."
The payouts all stem from the class-action monopoly suit Pecover v. Electronic Arts. A pair of disgruntled gamers filed the case against the publisher in 2011, accusing EA of overcharging customers and stifling competition via its exclusivity agreement with the NFL, NFL Players Association and other leagues.
The crux of the argument goes something like this: Before EA and the NFL signed their exclusivity agreement, 2K Sports initiated a price war be releasing ESPN NFL 2K5 at $20. EA was then forced to quickly drop that year's Madden price to $30.
At the time, EA's management said it would take any necessary steps to protect the Madden franchise, then shocked everyone by signing the exclusive NFL deal. Once that was done -- and 2K was essentially pushed out of the market -- prices jumped back to the $50-$60 range and have stayed there ever since.
Full details about the settlement and how to file a claim are available at the plaintiff's website.

Ran wrote:http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in ... 20408.html

Did you buy an EA football game between 2003 and 2012? You might have some money coming to you -- even more than you thought.
Recent modifications to the class-action settlement EA made regarding the games could triple the amount paid out to claimants, reports Polygon. Under the new terms, people will receive $20.37 per game, as opposed to $6.79, if they bought a copy for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube or Windows PC. Those who bought a version for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii will see $5.85 per game, instead of $1.95.
Those amounts aren't set in stone, it's worth noting. EA agreed to cap payments at $27 million, meaning if too many people file a claim, the totals could go down.
It turns out not that many people either knew -- or cared -- about the rebates initially. While the cutoff date to add your name (and address) to the claim was March 15, that date has now been pushed out until May 15.
"The Court modified the distribution plan to ensure that Settlement Class Members received as much money as possible from the settlement fund," said the notification. "The amount of money being returned to Settlement Class Members was less than expected because fewer than anticipated Settlement Class Members submitted claims prior to the original close of the claims period (i.e., prior to March 5, 2013), and Electronic Arts had fewer names and physical addresses for nonclaiming Settlement Class Members than the parties originally believed."
The payouts all stem from the class-action monopoly suit Pecover v. Electronic Arts. A pair of disgruntled gamers filed the case against the publisher in 2011, accusing EA of overcharging customers and stifling competition via its exclusivity agreement with the NFL, NFL Players Association and other leagues.
The crux of the argument goes something like this: Before EA and the NFL signed their exclusivity agreement, 2K Sports initiated a price war be releasing ESPN NFL 2K5 at $20. EA was then forced to quickly drop that year's Madden price to $30.
At the time, EA's management said it would take any necessary steps to protect the Madden franchise, then shocked everyone by signing the exclusive NFL deal. Once that was done -- and 2K was essentially pushed out of the market -- prices jumped back to the $50-$60 range and have stayed there ever since.
Full details about the settlement and how to file a claim are available at the plaintiff's website.

I just filed my claim since I bought 3 versions since 2006.