Troy Polamalu, Season Opener

[EasyT]

Steelers SS Troy Polamalu is out for the remainder of Thursday's game after suffering a left knee injury in the first half.
Polamalu was all over the place in the first half, highlighted by big hits in the running game and a spectacular leaping one-handed interception. The injury occurred when Polamalu went to the dirt to recover a fumble, and a falling Alge Crumpler bent his knee inward. Doctors looked at the knee, and Polamalu headed to the locker room before the end of the half. It's too early to tell how serious the injury may be. Sep. 10 - 9:57 pm et

[boost]

I enjoyed this thread.

[a500lbgorilla]

Crumpler is such a useless fat waste of space.

[nibbles]

The Madden curse continues! Every player on the cover goes down.
From Wikipedia:

Madden Curse

Prior to 1999, every annual installment of the Madden NFL series primarily featured John Madden on its cover. In 1999, Electronic Arts selected Garrison Hearst to appear on the PAL version's cover, and has since featured one of the league’s top players on every annual installment. Since then, certain players have experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury.

Quarterback Michael Vick appeared on the cover of Madden NFL 2004, and suffered a leg injury that sidelined him for most of the 2004 season. Ray Lewis was the face of Madden 05, and in week 6 of the 2005 season, suffered a season ending hamstring injury. Donovan McNabb was featured on the cover of Madden 06, on November 19th, 2006 in a game against Tennessee, McNabb tore his ACL while attempting to scramble out of bounds which left him sidelined for the remainder of the season. Running back Shaun Alexander, then the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player, was featured on the cover of Madden NFL 2007, and sustained a foot injury that caused him to miss six starts. As a result, Alexander’s rushing statistics were substantially less than those from the previous season, and he never returned to true form. Madden 08's cover featured Vince Young, the starting quarterback of the Tennessee Titans. On September 7th 2008 Vince Young sustained a knee injury which put him out of the game. He has not yet regained his starting quarterback position since he was relieved by backup quarterback Kerry Collins. Brett Favre was on the cover of Madden 09 and he appeared to be the only player to not have the curse happen to him; however, at the beginning of the 2009-2010 season, Farve admitted to suffering a torn biceps injury, which Farve says may have affected his gameplay during the final five games of his previous season with the New York Jets. On September 10th 2009, Strong Safety Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers sprained his MCL in the season opener against the Tennessee Titans. Polamalu shares the cover of Madden 10 with Larry Fitzgerald.

When asked about the “Madden Curse”, Chris Erb, the EA Sports director of marketing, commented, “I don't know that we believe in the curse. The players don't believe in the curse.” Greg Pearson, a writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, commented that the string of injuries that Madden cover athletes experience can be attributed to the physical nature of football. Alexander himself has asked, “Do you want to be hurt and on the cover, or just hurt?" When Vince Young appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to officially announce that he would appear on the cover of Madden NFL 2008, he derided allegations of becoming the curse’s next victim, and stated, “I done prayed about it and we're gonna go home and try to get to the playoffs and try to get to the Super Bowl. We'll see what happens." In 2007, GameSpot and CNBC reported that a large number of LaDainian Tomlinson's fans, who believed in the Madden Curse, were strongly opposed to EA Sports' initial decision to feature him on the 2008 cover, so much that a fan created SaveLTfromMadden.com to voice their disdain. Tomlinson eventually declined the offer, but stated it was solely due to contract negotiations.