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Games and Their Athletes
Well, it's Thanksgiving here in the states, and besides a tryptophan coma that means only one thing to a lot of U.S. males: Football. In the spirit of the Holiday, Gamespot has an article examining the performance of box-art sports heroes for this year's games. From the article: "Did those cover studs turn into pine-warming duds this year, or are they meriting that cover appearance with more brilliant play on the field? It's time to separate the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, and the Eli Mannings from the Kellen Winslows. Who got bit by the Madden Curse? Who made the cover but hasn't seen a smidge of game time yet?" Seperate the who from the what now?
This was on snopes this morning:
;)
http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.asp
I don't care what they say though, I'm still blaming it on the turkey
No Comment.
The "SI Curse" or Madden Curse is nothing more than a product of statistical blindness, as follows: You only get on the cover if you're doing phenomenally, beyond what your stats would predict. So when you drop back down to normal levels of play, of course everybody says you're in a slump.
Where's the Hockey?
What about Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon? Jeff had about his worst year ever and Jimmie blew a tire in the last race of the year, going for a championship, and ended up finishing 5th in the standings overall.
i love how separate is spelled correct in the quote, and then misspelled in the post body. 8)
Moo.
Instead of relying on Gamespot to know anything about hockey, lets just take a look at things ourselves:
NHL 2006 has Vincent Lecavalier on the cover... Vinny currently has 11 goals and 15 assists in 24 games, so he's averaging just over a point a game. He managed 66 points in 81 games in the 03-04 season, but it's difficult to compare this years NHL season to that one due to all the rule changes. His team has a somewhat mediocre 12-9-3 record at the moment, which isn't that great considering they're the defending Stanley Cup champions (And also considering that the rule changes should have helped a fast team like the Lightning). Overall I'd say he's doing well... I had expected him to do better, but I wouldn't call this a slump.
NHL 2K6 has Mats Sundin on the cover... Mats was hit in the face with a puck about 7 minutes into his first game this season, fracturing the orbital bone around his eye and causing him to miss a few weeks of play... this is a little disheartening for a player who is generally known as being very reliable (In the previous 9 seasons, he's only missed 23 games in total). However, now that he's back, he's generally been doing well. In the 10 games he's played, he's scored 3 goals and 6 assists (in 03-04, he had 75 points in 81 games). His team has a 12-8-2 record, which is somewhat average leaving them in 3rd place in their division.
Some better choices as cover material would include Jaromir Jagr (37 points in 24 games), Peter Forsberg (35 points in 20 games), Daniel Alfredsson (35 points in 19 games), or Dany Heatley (33 points in 19 games, including at least one point in every game so far this season)... although I think all of them (except maybe Alfredsson) have already had the cover treatment. Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin would also have been great choices, although as rookies, there was the risk that they'd bomb out of the league... Dominik Hasek would have also been a risk, as there were concerns that his age would hinder him.
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH