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Calvin Johnson beats the Madden curse

by: John -
More On: Madden NFL 13
In the history of cover athletes for Madden, the athlete chosen would always seem to have a down year. It's happened to the best of them and this year's victim was Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions. 

Megatron, Calvin's nickname, seemed destined to fall below expectations but it didn't happen. For once, something good happened to the incredibly talented wide receiver.

On Saturday, facing the Atlanta Falcons, Megatron set the NFL single-season yards receiving record passing the great Jerry Rice with 1,892 yards with one more game to go. The old record was 1,848 yards. Calvin also set a record of having 100+ receiving yards in consecutive games standing at eight and counting.

But, like his nickname and the affiliation with the Decepticons, his team lost again falling to 4-11 and one game less in the win column than my lowly Cleveland Browns. Yet, Calvin Johnson did something that few Madden athletes were able to do, succeed immensely on an individual level for that year.