Sports-related curses
In 1999, Electronic Arts selected San Francisco 49ers running back 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 despite Madden's opposition.
The phenomenon has been brought up after high-profile deaths such as those of Ted Kennedy, Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, Steve Jobs, Whitney Houston, Robin Williams, Paul Walker, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Nancy Reagan,[21] Kenneth Kaunda, Chester Bennington, Tommy Smith, Gregg Allman, Roger Moore, Stephen Hawking, Eric Bristow, Burt Reynolds, Mac Miller, Jimmy Buffett, George H. W. Bush, Keith Flint, Luke Perry, Gugu Liberato, Hosni Mubarak, Max von Sydow, June Brown, Olivia Newton-John, Steve Harwell, Elizabeth II, Bray Wyatt, etc., coming in short time periods after every match where Ramsey scored.
[23] Before the 1986 FIFA World Cup, the Argentina national football team’s manager Carlos Bilardo, along with the players found a place called Tilcara, in which to prepare for the tournament.
Bilardo attempted to deny any involvement, but the local populace confirmed the team's arrival, angering a portion of Argentine fans who accused the 1986 winners of betraying their promises.
"[40][36] According to David Bolchover, in his biography of Guttmann, the alleged curse was first mentioned in May 1988 by newspaper Gazeta dos Desportos, the day Benfica played their sixth European final.
Their multiple losses and inability to win any league championship has rival club fans bestow Cruz Azul with the mock title "Sub-Campeonísimos" (literally "Supreme Runner ups".)
[65] The word is now in observation by the Royal Spanish Academy[66] The "curse" was eventually broken at the end of the 2021 Clausura finals, when Cruz Azul defeated Santos Laguna 2–1 on aggregate, thus achieving their first league title in over 23 years, and ninth overall.
English football side Derby County were placed under a curse by a group of Romani Gypsies who were forced to move from a camp so that they could build their stadium, the Baseball Ground.
[94] This came to the forefront when they were eliminated after losing 1–0 to the United States (who they previously beat in 1998) during the 2022 FIFA World Cup,[95] around the same time the Iranian government had made international news for their brutality towards those participating in the Mahsa Amini protests,[96] which also included several players on the team.
The Mexico national football team were eliminated from every FIFA World Cup at the round of 16 stage from 1994 to 2018, losing to Bulgaria in 1994, Germany in 1998, the United States in 2002, Argentina in 2006 and 2010, Netherlands in 2014, and Brazil in 2018.
At the same time, its association to number 4 is also believed to have played a major role in causing the miseries of the national teams of South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Italy, in particular during 2010s, mainly in the FIFA World Cup where the impact was the most visible.
The 2000s would now see the United States frequently beat Mexico with a regular 2–0 score starting in February 2001 when the two met in a freezing cold Columbus, Ohio during a qualifying match towards the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
[113] Raith Rovers did not defeat Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a Scottish league fixture between the years 2000 and 2023,[114] until the curse was finally broken on 16 September 2023 thanks to a goal from Jamie Gullan and a theatrical goalkeeping performance from Kevin Dabrowski.
The result was also significant in that it dealt Duncan Ferguson his first defeat as Inverness Caledonian Thistle Manager, nearly thirty years after he assaulted a Raith Rovers player during his time at Rangers.
[118] In recent years, the final ten minutes of the fixture have become synonymous with ever-more improbable comebacks from both sides[119][120][117] Teams who traditionally wear red and white striped shirts and black shorts are said to be cursed in the English Football League play-offs.
Various attempts have been tried to undo the Mexican soil curse, from playing in familiar ground to even arriving early to familiarise, but with little success; it's believed that high altitude, combined with massive breathing difficulty and raucous, hostile crowd, greatly affected the United States players when they line up against Mexico.
[163] In 2021, after 57 years (ironically the same age of Smith when he died in 1973), the curse was broken when Melbourne won the 2021 AFL Grand Final over the Western Bulldogs by the biggest margin in the club's history, in a game played in Perth.
Some allege that there was a curse placed on the Boston Red Sox, who failed to win a World Series after 1918, apparently due to the selling of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.
Even with Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Rome seeking divine intervention through Pope Benedict XVI the day before,[180] the "Kafkaesque black farce"[181] continued from where it had left off—with Donegal allowed bridge a 20-year gap between titles, helped in no small part by a nightmare opening quarter for Mayo as Michael Murphy—the son of a Mayoman—launched a rocket of a shot into the goal after three minutes.
Following the death of Fr Peter Quinn in January 2016 and Pádraig Carney in 2019, two living members of the 1951 All-Ireland SFC winning team remained: Paddy Prendergast and Mick Loftus.
They would not finish in first place in their division (1928–1937) or in the single-division NHL (after 1938) until 1967, the final season of the Original Six era, despite winning the Stanley Cup three times since Muldoon supposedly "cursed" the team.
A number of drivers have apparently poor luck when racing in their home Grands Prix, with notable examples being Jenson Button, Mark Webber, Rubens Barrichello, Charles Leclerc and George Russell.
At the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, David Coulthard's final F1 race ended in retirement in a first lap collision when his Red Bull was sporting a Wings for Life charity livery.
[210] The following year, the Jaguar team, now rebranded Red Bull Racing, ran another livery that promoted the release of another film, this time Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
Coulthard would eventually score Red Bull's first podium by finishing third at the subsequent year's running of the event, which saw the team utilise a Superman Returns livery; however, Christian Klien retired due to transmission problems.
Mercedes ran a special retro livery to celebrate 125 years of their involvement in motorsport at the 2019 German Grand Prix, but the curse took hold when Lewis Hamilton broke his front wing (the resulting pit stop took more than a minute to complete), spinning and ended up in ninth place having started from pole position while Valtteri Bottas crashed out.
[225][226][227] In 2021, the Atlanta Braves, despite numerous injuries, inconsistent first-half performances, Marcell Ozuna's off-the-field incident, and having the worst record of any 2021 playoff team, won the 2021 World Series.
UFC fighters Aljamain Sterling, Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland,[240] along with boxer Tyson Fury, NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr, and the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team, are those named as ‘most cursed’.
Marketing experts have highlighted the "curse of Gillette", given the mishaps that happen to sports stars which are associated with the brand, most notably Tiger Woods, Thierry Henry and David Beckham.
Ten years later, when the even taller Comcast Technology Center was topped out, the iron workers on that skyscraper did the same thing and the Philadelphia Eagles would go on to win Super Bowl LII.
