Former Arkansas Star Got Juked in the Madden Trailer, and He’s Not Happy

The latest edition of the legendary football video game Madden NFL isn't due out for over two months, but is already causing some controversy online. Although the scope of the controversy might be limited to a single NFL player.

Former Arkansas Razorback football star Kamren Curl was just minding his own business, when a new trailer for Madden 26 hit the internet. The video posted this week centers around the cover star of the game, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, but also feature Curl. And one of those two looks really good in the featured clip.

What's the Drama with the New Madden Trailer?

The video snippet that Madden featured was of the video game version of Barkely running through the snow, and also shows Curl getting juked to the ground by Barkley. One of the smoothest moves ever shown in the Madden game, and one of the most realistic reactions to a juke we've seen.

This didn't land well with Curl.

In response to the trailer clip, Curl posted to his social media that he won't be playing the Madden game this year.

Curl added in a follow up that he's been playing the game his whole life, and wasn't happy about the way he was treated the first time he was featured in a trailer.

During his college career, Curl played for the Arkansas Razorbacks where he was a three-year starter. He was named Preseason All-SEC Third Team his Junior year, and was the first NCAA player that year to record a sack, interception, and score a touchdown off a fumble. He did all that in just two weeks.

After Arkansas, he became a draft pick of the Washington Commanders, where he played four seasons. During his time in Washington, he accumulated three interceptions, 5 sacks, and 385 tackles. He was signed by the Los Angeles Rams before the 2024 season. His first season in LA included 79 tackles, 1 sack, 2 forced fumbles, and 1 fumble recovery.

Curl's beef with Madden isn't the first time NFL players have had issues with the game series. In the past players have taken issues with the way they look in the game, their ratings in the game, and of course...the Madden Curse.

A Long History of The Madden Curse: Jinxed Cover Athletes

Going all the way back to the Madden 2001 cover, the players who have been featured seem to fall into bad luck after. In 2001 it was Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George. The year after he was featured, he had a catastrophic fumble in the playoffs, leading to the Titans being eliminated. After that, injuries started to impact his career.

The next season (Madden 2002), cover athlete Daunte Culpepper suffered a season-ending knee injury. Madden 2003 had Marshall Faulk on the cover, and his season was plagued by ankle injuries, which kept him under 1,000 yards on the year.

Michael Vick (Madden 2004) broke his leg that year, Ray Lewis (Madden 2005) broke his wrist that season, Donovan McNabb (Madden 2006) missed 7 games that year due to injury, Shaun Alexander (Madden 2007) broke his foot, Vince Young (Madden 2008) injured his quad that year, and would lose his starting job to Kerry Collins by September of the following year.

You can keep running down the list of cover athletes like Brett Favre, Troy Polamalu, Adrian Peterson, Rob Gronkowski, and Christian McCaffrey all dealt with injuries immediately after appearing on the cover. Others saw off-the-field issues impact them, like Odell Beckham Jr and Antonio Brown, after appearing on the cover. Or someone like Peyton Hillis (Madden 2012) who's career completely disappeared after being on the cover.

There's no telling if Saquon Barkley will face the curse this year, hopefully he doesn't. We also hope that Kameron Curl gets featured in another trailer too. One where he gets an interception, or makes a "hit stick" tackle.