When the box art was announced a few months ago for Madden 09, most fans of the series felt that the Madden Curse would finally be lifted.  Brett Favre was on the cover, and he was retired.  Any harm he could do would be limited to him having an injury on his ranch in Mississippi.  Well, it seems that, like The Dude, the Curse abides.

If anyone has not been following the sports pages, the Favre saga has gone all kinds of bat#&%* crazy insane, with Favre wanting to come back after his teary-eyed farewell, the Packers offering to pay him to not come to training camp and even tampering charges with Minnesota.

In the midst of this is four year veteran, Aaron Rodgers, who is the heir to the quarterback position in Green Bay.  How crappy must he feel, now that everyone is asking him what he is going to do when Favre comes back.  It is probably one of the worst positions to be in, considering the fanaticism that Packer fans have for Brett Favre.

So congratulations to Madden for pulling off the greatest Curse story yet.  Not even Sports Illustrated has pulled off a Curse on an athlete this great.  Electronic Arts, you are going to have to really work hard to top yourselves next year.