​Apparently the Drake Curse Dates All the Way Back to "Draft Day"

BY Sarah MurphyPublished Aug 2, 2019

Intentionally or not, Drake has been controlling a multitude of sports this year — from his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs to European football teams to the Toronto Raptors' foes — but it seems the curse has even earlier origins than we thought. Apparently, Drake has been playing the long game and cursing athletes since releasing "Draft Day" back in 2014.
 
The track is experiencing a resurgence thanks to the release of Care Package, and fans have noticed that a few athletes mentioned in the lyrics have suffered similarly poor fates to those of this year's cursed teams.
 
Drizzy namedrops both Johnny "Football" Manziel and Andrew Wiggins in the intro to the song, and both athletes have since been unable to live up to the hype they once generated.
 
Despite being the first freshman to ever win the Heisman Trophy in 2012, Manziel's NFL career fell far short of expectations. He was notoriously dropped by the Cleveland Browns after two seasons for numerous drug and alcohol offences, and an arrest for domestic violence.
 
After lengthy contract negotiations, he signed a deal to play in the CFL for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — which Toronto superfan Drake couldn't have been happy about.
 
Drake also mentioned Toronto basketball wunderkind Andrew Wiggins, who at the time was just the second Canadian player to be picked first overall in the NBA draft. He won the Rookie of the Year title in 2014-15, but he had a rough start to last season and has been criticized for his lack of defensive play — not to mention his practically un-tradable $147.7 million USD contract.
 
As if the floundering careers of Manziel and Wiggins weren't cursed enough, Drake may have even snapped the career win streak of Jennifer Lawrence.
 
She's namedropped in the song, and since its release her films have become increasingly polarizing. She went from being an awards season darling for Silver Linings Playbook and an action hero in Hunger Games to roles in critically divisive films like Joy, Passengers, Mother!, Red Sparrow and Dark Phoenix.
 
See some of the reaction to "Draft Day's" retroactive curses below.
 

Latest Coverage