'Predict the Madden Curse' Contest

Between Prince and I, the Shaun Alexander
year had a LOT of significance. Read on!

As I mentioned in the Madden Curse History post and on Friday's podcast, we here at Boris Diaw Time are going to be holding a special contest in honor of The Madden Curse. The contest goal will be to predict the Madden Curse as accurately as possible.

Here is some backstory as to why I would ever have such an idea...

In the fall of 2006, I was a junior at Grace College in Warsaw, IN. Not surprisingly, I was every bit as sports crazed then as I am now, and a bunch of my college friends, including Prince, and I were all in a fantasy football league. Approximately one week before the draft, Madden 07 came out, making everyone in the league wary of drafting Shaun Alexander. Undeterred, Prince pulled the trigger with one of the top 3 picks, inciting a random psychotic verbal assault by me. In no uncertain terms, I let him know that his selection was the worst in fantasy football history and that he might as well have just said 'pass' when his pick came around. Prince, of course, defended his pick, saying everything would be alright, to which I responded, almost verbatim, "No, it's not going to be alright! You wait and see, Alexander will get hurt in Week 3 and you'll be sorry!"

In Week 3 of the 2006 season, Shaun Alexander broke his foot, missing the next 6 games and finishing the season with nearly 1000 fewer yards (and 20 fewer TD's) than the previous season. I remember the exact moment when I found out about the injury. I remember where I was, I remember running -- not walking, RUNNING -- into Prince's room to tell him the news and to see the lights go out of his eyes. I remember telling everyone who would listen that I had actually predicted the exact week of the Madden Curse.

The next year, I went back to the well and predicted a Week 6 injury for Vince Young...AND NAILED IT, SPOT ON! I had witnesses and everything! Then last year, after taking a lengthy hiatus from my post as 'Madden Curse Seer,' I predicted the exact week of Peyton Hillis' injury during the Bold Predictions segment of the podcast.

After once again experiencing the thrill of being one with The Madden Curse, I thought expanding it into a contest would be a great idea. Now, everyone can experience the joy and pleasure of actively rooting against the well-being of others. What fun!

This year's victim should be interesting as well. Calvin Johnson, aka Megatron, posted one of the greatest WR seasons in history last year, and has openly talked of a 2000 yard receiving season. I don't know about all that, but I do know that it won't happen this year. Because he's screwed. Remember, this is a guy who has had nagging injury problems in the past, so The Curse shouldn't have a problem doing its work.

Here are the ground rules:

1. Entries must be submitted by the start of Week 2. Obviously, we're starting this thing a bit late, so we'll run it through Week 1 and hope The Curse doesn't get him this early. Of course, if it does, then there is no contest.

2. Entries can be submitted one of three ways: the comments section of this post, via Facebook, or by email (borisdiawtime@gmail.com).

3. The winner will be determined by who is closest to guessing the week of the injury. In case of a tie, the winner will be determined by who is closest to guessing the nature of the injury. (In that case, I will be sole arbiter.)

Those are all the rules! So go enter! Have fun everyone, and good luck!