Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles missed seven games in the 2005-2006 season due to injury and his team failed to make the playoffs after appearing on the cover of the game, thus continuing the "Madden Curse".
First Madden title to shorten the year rather then using the full year number.
This is the first Madden NFL title to introduce the vision cone which enabled players to accurately throw passes to specific receivers based on their quarterback's passing accuracy rating.