Super Bowl combatants Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald face off helmet-to-helmet for "Madden NFL 10," the first time in the franchise's 21-year history that two players adorn the cover.

EA Sports' latest edition of the best-selling sports video game ever, with more than 65 million sold, won't be on store shelves until Aug. 14, but the announcement of the coverboys always arrives with fanfare -- and renews the lore of The Madden Curse.

There are sites and forums and blogs throughout the sports and gaming Webverse devoted to the "curse," that, like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, can spell doom in the form of an injury or a career downturn. Headlines such as "EA decides to curse two athletes with Madden cover" (NationalPost.com) abound.

"We're absolutely aware of it," said Rob Semsey. The senior public relations manager for EA Sports was talking by phone from New York, where Mr. Fitzgerald was meeting some members of the media and being bombarded with questions about the curse. Mr. Semsey is a Uniontown native and was excited about the players' Pittsburgh connections, with Mr. Polamalu representing the Steelers on defense and Mr. Fitzgerald, of Pitt and the Arizona Cardinals, representing the offense for the game's main theme, "Fight for Every Yard."

The way EA Sports looks at it, Mr. Semsey said, a rumored curse that rules Web chatter for years is simply a sign of the popularity of the game.

"A couple of years ago, when there was just a rumor that LT [San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson] was going to be on the cover, he kind of joked it off, said he didn't want to get cursed, and that just kept it going."

Mr. Fitzgerald, who also appeared on the cover of the "NCAA Football 2005" game as a Pitt All-American, did not appear to be worried about his Madden cover appearance. "He said what an honor it is and the fact that he gets to share it with Troy is fantastic," Mr. Semsey said.

"I didn't think about the curse," Mr. Fitzgerald told The Associated Press. "If both of us have MVP years, everybody will be chomping at the bit to get on the cover."

However, the players who have appeared on the cover and then had a change in fortune is well documented.

The most recent victim was '09 coverboy Brett Favre, who came out of a quickie retirement to lead the Jets to some early victories before he injured his throwing arm. The team missed the playoffs, and Mr. Favre announced his retirement, again.

Former Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick was on the cover in 2004, and he missed the first 11 games of the season with a broken leg, followed by a downhill slide that landed him in jail for a case involving dog fights.

Mr. Vick's bad luck didn't deter the Ravens' Ray Lewis from allowing his image on the Madden game the following year -- although he was still the heart of the defense, he missed one game and did not record an interception for the first time in his career.

Dante Culpepper, Donovan McNabb and Shaun Alexander all experienced serious injuries and missed significant playing time after their cover close-ups.

Curse aside, the "Madden NFL" video-game franchise has prospered for 21 years because of the quality of the gaming.

"What happened is the franchise has grown so huge in pop culture, people create things like this to talk about," Mr. Semsey said.

For gamers, "Madden NFL 10" attempts to live up to EA Sports' "internal mantra for the game, 'Fight For Every Yard,' like a receiver fighting to get out of bounds. We're replicating plays like that better than ever. So with Troy and Larry, we have two players who are both the best at their position, and they totally optimize what we were trying to do."