Cursed

I may be in the minority on this, but I don't believe in superstitions, cosmic forces (I'm looking at you zodiac signs), or curses. If something is going to happen then it's going to happen. I don't think you can attribute it to anything other than circumstance.

That said, the notion of curses are rather commonplace in my world. For example, when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 it was said that they "reversed the curse of the Bambino." Many also believe that the Chicago Cubs, who haven't won the World Series since 1908, are suffering from the "Curse of the Billy Goat."

There's also the "Madden Curse", or the notion that being featured on the cover of the popular NFL video game will bring a player bad fortune (usually by way of injury) for that season. The evidence certainly makes you wonder.



2002- Daunte Culpepper- He would go on to throw 23 INT’s and break the NFL record for fumbles in a season that year.

2003-Marshall Faulk- Knee injuries caused Faulk to miss 11 games over the next 2 seasons.

2004-Michael Vick- Vick broke his leg in the pre-season and missed 11 games in 2004.

2005-Ray Lewis- Lewis missed the last 3 games of the year with a wrist injury and
also failed to record an INT for the first time in his career.

2006-Donovan McNabb- The former Syracuse star tore his ACL halfway through the 2006 season.

2007- Shaun Alexander- Alexander wound up missing 6 games with a foot injury in 2007.

2008-Vince Young- Young injured his knee in Week 1 and eventually lost his starting job to washed up veteran Kerry Collins. For the season Young completed 22 of 36 passes for 219 yards over the course of 3 games.

2009- Brett Favre- Favre led the NFL with 22 INT’s in 2009. He also texted pictures of his phallus to a Jets employee that year.

2010- Troy Polamalu/Larry Fitzgerald- Polamalu missed 4 games with a sprained MCL that he suffered in Week 1 and then missed the remainder of the season after spraining his PCL in Week 10.

Another sports related phenomenon is the surprising number of NBA coaches that have been fired shortly after winning the Coach of the Year award. The Coach of the Year in 2002 was the Detroit Pistons' Rick Carlisle. He was fired less than a year later on May 30th, 2003. In 2006 the top coaching honor in the NBA went to the Dallas Mavericks' Avery Johnson. On April 30th, 2008 Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Johnson packing. Ironically Carlisle is the current coach of the Mavs.

In 2007 the Raptors Sam Mitchell was named Coach of the Year. He was fired 18 months later on December 3rd, 2008. The Coach of the Year in 2008 was the New Orleans Hornets Byron Scott. He was canned on November 12th, 2009. Finally, the 2009 recipient of the hardware was a man I met just last week, the Cleveland Cavaliers' Mike Brown. He was fired less than a year later on May 24, 2010. Ironically the current coach of the Cavs is Byron Scott.


Former Cavs coach Mike Brown. A great guy by the way.

Although the instances are too spread out and detailed for me to get into I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the SI jinx.

Now I tell you all of this because all of the rage right now is centered on the so-called "Oscar Curse". What's the Oscar Curse? Well, 9 of the last 11 women that have won the Academy Award for Best Actress have gone on to get divorced or break up with their long term boyfriend shortly after achieving the ultimate honor in acting. The New York Times economics blog recently ran a story about this phenomenon. They found that the Oscar winner for Best Actress has a 1.68 times greater chance of getting divorced than the women also nominated. There is no such correlation for winners of Best Actor.

1997 (The awards are presented in February/March of the following year)- Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets- divorced Hank Azaria (the voice of many Simpsons characters) on December 21st, 2000.

1998- Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love- broke up with boyfriend Ben Affleck a few months later in May of 1999.

2000- Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich- broke up with boyfriend Benjamin Bratt a few months later in June of 2001.

2001- Halle Berry in Monster's Ball- divorced Eric Benet on April 29th, 2004.

2003- Charlize Theron in Monster- this one is a bit of a stretch, but she broke up with long time boyfriend Stuart Townsend in January 2010.

2004- Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby- divorced Chad Lowe on May 26th, 2006.

2005- Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line- divorced Ryan Phillippe on November 8th, 2006.

2008- Kate Winslet in The Reader- divorced Sam Mendes on March 15th, 2010.

2009- Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side- divorced Jesse James on April 28th, 2010.

So clearly the writing is on the wall for presumptive 2010 winner Natalie Portman, who is recently engaged and preggers. In fact, I would contend that's its not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Seriously, I'm surprised that 100% of Best Actress winners don't get divorced. Think about it. For the most part all of these women are gorgeous, but for some reason or another they can't make a marriage last. In many of these cases, the husband cheated. Now why on earth would anyone in their right mind ever cheat on let's say Halle Berry?



From an outsider's perpective that's a great question. Most men would say that there is no way that they'd ever cheat on Halle Berry. So why did Eric Benet repeatedly do it? Well clearly Halle Berry is crazy. Listen, we know that all woman are overly dramatic, but winning the award for Best Actress is certification that you are the craziest, most dramatic woman on the earth.