Legendary NFL coach John Madden will appear on the cover of all three editions of Madden NFL 23, which is planned for an August 2022 release date, EA and the NFL announced Wednesday. Madden is the namesake of the video game series, and he passed away on Dec. 28, 2021 at the age of 85.
John Madden last showed up on the cover of the game in 2000. Since then, the game series has trended toward putting the stars of the NFL on the front. In Madden NFL 22, the two players on the cover were the Super Bowl LV quarterbacks Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes.
“We were thinking about this year’s game and who was going to go on it; it almost became an obvious answer,” Seann Graddy, executive producer of Madden NFL, said in an interview with ESPN. “I say that because we really wanted to celebrate coach in the product this year and what he’s meant to us for the 30-plus years that we’ve been using his name in our game.”
The legendary John Madden returns to the cover #Madden23 pic.twitter.com/unfWPYV6KD
— NFL (@NFL) June 1, 2022
John Madden coached the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978. He boasted an incredibly winning record and still holds the highest winning percentage among NFL head coaches with 100 games or more. Madden led the Raiders to eight playoff appearances and the team’s first Super Bowl win. After coaching, he became a color commentator for the NFL until 2008. Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
The Madden NFL game series began in 1988 with the release of “John Madden Football.” Since then, the game series has made more than $4 billion in sales of over 100 million copies. The game is officially licensed by the NFL, creating a close partnership between EA and the American football league that has lasted decades.
An official Madden 23 reveal trailer will release at 10 a.m. ET on June 2.
