Madden NFL 23 cover star is John Madden himself

Madden NFL 23The cover star is… John Madden himself.

EA Sports’ longest-serving series Hall of Fame coach, broadcaster and namesake died on December 28, 2021 at age 85. Madden NFL 23 will remember him with three different covers, representing his legacy in the NFL, television and video games.

“There are so many ways we try to live up to, to aspire to the legend that Coach Madden was, in our game this year,” said Mike Mahar, EA Tiburon Senior Producer for the Madden NFL series, to the media last week. during a preview event and cover reveal for the upcoming game.

The “first interactive experience” of Madden NFL 23 — playable as the game settles — will pit two generations of All-Madden NFL stars against each other, the two teams coached by Madden as he appeared at different periods of his career. The game is being played in a throwback rendition of Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, where Madden led the Oakland Raiders to a 103-32-7 record from 1969 to 1978.

On one cover, Madden is at the Rose Bowl celebrating his Oakland Raiders’ 32-14 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI. In the second, he wears a broadcaster’s headset and scribbles pass patterns on the viewer’s screen; Madden was an analyst for the four live networks that aired NFL games from 1979 to 2008.

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  Image: Electronic Arts
  

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  Image: Electronic Arts
  

Madden NFL 23The cover of All Madden Edition is a tribute to the cover of Madden’s first title, John Madden Football, which Electronic Arts published in 1988. In Philadelphia artist Chuck Styles’ adaptation, Madden erupts through a playbook full of Xs and O’s, like pro football’s Kool-Aid Man.

Image: Electronic Arts

“A pervasive theme this year is living up to the standard and passion that Coach had for authentic 11v11 football,” Mahar said. Madden notoriously turned down Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins’ first pitch to make a football video game, in 1984, unless it put two teams of 11 players on the field – something video games don’t. had not yet delivered at the time. But developer Robin Antonick and producer Mike Ybarra pledged to meet that standard, and four years later EA released John MaddenFootball for the Apple II.

John Madden last appeared on the cover of the main edition of Madden NFL with the year 1999 Madden NFL 2000. (He was on the cover of Madden NFL 07‘s Hall of Fame edition.) Madden featured or shared cover art for the first 14 Electronic Arts games released under his name. In 2000, EA Sports started the tradition of picking a new NFL player each year. The only stars with multiple covers, other than Madden himself, are Barry Sanders (Madden NFL 2000 and Madden NFL 25), and Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, who starred in Madden NFL 22 last year after appearing on the cover of Madden NFL 18 and Madden NFL 20respectively.

Madden NFL 23 Set to launch in August, before the start of the NFL regular season, on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles.