Daunte Culpepper appears poised to have time to purify himself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka, as the Miami Dolphins are close to releasing the former Pro-Bowl quarterback. Culpepper, who destroyed his knee two seasons ago while playing for the Minnesota Vikings, played for a short time last season with the Dolphins. He is due $5.5 million next season, and it appears the Dolphins are not willing to pay that much for a mobile quarterback running on a leg that might fly off at any moment. That, as well as the fact that in the games he did play last season, he appeared to believe he was still throwing to Randy Moss instead of Wes Welker.
One option for Culpepper is the Oakland Raiders, who are dying to grab a quarterback so that they can draft Calvin Johnson with the first overall pick.
As a firm believer in the Madden Curse, and that no one escapes it, Culpepper appears to have gotten his come-uppance. My question is this: As athletes are the most superstitious people in the world, how do they continue to convince these guys to be on the cover? Is there something in the contract that pays them a boatload of money if they get hurt the next year? Do they have dirt on these guys and they can’t refuse? To hell with investigating steroids in baseball, why isn’t EA Sports in front of Congress on this? If I were launching a competitive football video game (as 2k Sports is doing this year), my first round of marketing would be to the cities who in the past had a player fall victim to the curse: “Hey Atlanta, remember how EA Sports screwed your season when Vick broke his leg in the pre-season? Get back at EA and buy our game instead!”
Rest assured we will revisit this topic once the cover for Madden ’08 is announced.