As it should be
In most years, there’s at least a little bit of speculation as to who will grace the cover of the annual Madden NFL video game from EA Sports. This year, however, Electronic Arts went in the only direction they could really go.
The legendary John Madden returns to the cover #Madden23 pic.twitter.com/unfWPYV6KD
— NFL (@NFL) June 1, 2022
The league has just announced that the cover of Madden NFL ‘23 will be graced by none other than the legendary coach himself.
Madden passed away on 28 December of this past year after a brilliant career as both the coach of the Oakland Raiders and a broadcaster for just about every network that carried the NFL. For the younger generation, his legacy is likely best encapsulated by the Madden NFL series, which has been a part of the video game landscape since it first debuted on PC in 1988. In fact, the picture that is being used for the cover of this year’s game appears to be the same one that was used for the original John Madden Football back in 1988.
This will be the first time that Madden himself has appeared on the cover since Madden NFL 2000. After that, EA went to using players for the cover each year. Only one member of the Minnesota Vikings has received that honor, that being Daunte Culpepper’s appearance on the cover of Madden NFL 2002.
Kudos to EA Sports for putting Coach Madden on the cover of this year’s game. Yes, it was the obvious choice, but they did actually make it.