In a tribute to his namesake, the cover of the Madden NFL 23 video game will feature a person: John Madden.
Madden, the Hall of Fame coach who died on December 28, will be on the cover of all three editions of this year’s game, which will premiere in August. It is the first time in more than two decades that Madden will be the focal point of the cover, which has tended to be used by current athletes.
John Madden last appeared on the cover of the Madden 2000 edition of the game. Courtesy of EA Sports
“We were thinking about this year’s game and who would go; it almost became an obvious answer,” Madden NFL executive producer Seann Graddy told ESPN. “I say that because we really wanted to celebrate the coach in this year’s product and what it has meant to us for over 30 years that we’ve been using his name in our game.”
The Last Madden was the main cover of the 2000 edition of the game, which was released in 1999. It appeared in a small box on the next four editions of the game with its signature and All Madden logo on it. next to the main screen. cover athlete before disappearing from the Madden NFL 06 cover, which featured Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.
EA then went on to use current athletes for coverage each year. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady shared it last year.
Graddy told ESPN that putting Madden on the cover has only been discussed for this year’s game, but he said, “Anything is possible, to be honest,” about putting the former coach on the cover in the future.
The cover of All Madden, one of three covers this year, is reminiscent of the original John Madden Football, published on June 1, 1988. This cover featured a young, sandy-haired Madden holding a ball and making a hole through an X and O diagram on a board with the name of the game at the top of the box.
The cover of the All Madden edition has a similar-looking young Madden holding a football bursting into what appears to be a paper full of X and O. Next to the cover, in white lettering, is “Thank you, coach “.
Chuck Styles, a Philadelphia-based artist who has created exclusive trading cards for Topps in his Project70 release, as well as many works depicting NBA players, designed the cover of the All Madden edition.
The other two covers, not created by Styles, look at Madden as coach and announcer. The cover of the show has Madden in a blue shirt and tie that seems to draw on a telestrator, for which he was famous during his career. The coaching staff has Madden, who coached the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, lifted by his players after defeating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI.
“What we wanted everyone to take away,” Graddy said, “is that we’re celebrating all three phases of Coach Madden’s legacy type.”
Madden was immersed in the game from the beginning, demanding it be 11 vs. 11 and handing over his old game book to game developers to create more realism. As the game grew, so did its influence on the players. Many current NFL players say Madden was part of his education: Detroit Lions defender Jeff Okudah told ESPN in 2020 that he learned football by playing Madden, and that was always a point of pride. for the eponymous game.
“It gives you the satisfaction that you’re doing something worthwhile,” Madden told ESPN in 2021. “You and everyone involved are devoting time, and it works and influences that people not only enjoy the game, but that you can play the game.
“It helps them be better players. And I think that’s what happens with high school, college and professionals. There’s a real satisfaction you see when someone talks about it.”
While many of the game features in this year’s edition have not been announced, Graddy said the initial experience will feature two versions of 70’s Madden training against each other: a leading an NFC All Madden team and another an AFC All Madden team. – at the old Oakland Coliseum.
“It’s a fun fantasy experience where it’s Coach Madden vs Coach Madden,” Graddy said. “With a call from the All Madden teams we used to create and had in our game, a mix of legendary players and current players.
“Honestly, to think why we wanted coach versus coach is that we want the coach to win.”
During that experience, Graddy said, there will be lines uttered by Madden interspersed throughout comments about some of the players on All Madden’s roster.
As part of the cover announcement, EA announced that it will split its $ 5 million donation to the John Madden Legacy Commitment to Education, with $ 2.5 million for nonprofits College Track, Girls Who Code, StreetCode Academy and Mission Bit to support five years of programming. in the space of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. The other $ 2.5 million will help create the EA Madden Scholarship, which will work with the United Negro College Fund to offer scholarships to students from 12 historically black colleges and universities.