EA Sports usually has more hype and lead-up into the reveal of its yearly cover athletes. After the passing of the game's namesake, this year's announcement is more muted but the choice of who shall grace the cover is the only choice for this year. EA Sports has officially revealed the cover art for the next entry in the yearly Madden NFL football franchise. To no surprise, the late coach and announcer John Madden will be gracing the cover of Madden NFL 23.John Madden passed away on December 28, 2021. The Hall of Fame coach has become further engrained in the cultural lexicon thanks to the football video game franchise that bore his name. Madden himself has not been on the cover of the game since 2000 and has since only featured the hottest athletes of the time. With his passing, the obvious choice was made to honor the coach that worked closely with Electronic Arts in its early days.There will be three editions of Madden NFL 23 and each will feature different cover art of John Madden. The All Madden Edition variant cover is designed to celebrate the first Madden cover released in 1988. The decision to have John Madden on the cover was "obvious" as Seann Graddy, the executive producer of Madden NFL, said in a statement to ESPN. John Madden's image will be used for this year's cover, but Graddy also stated that featuring the coach's likeness on future Madden covers is not outside the realm of possibility. Madden's signature used to be the cover around the current year's cover athlete, but that practice ceased after 2006.
The press announcement for John Madden as the Madden NFL 23 cover was today, but the official artwork reveal for the other editions will be tomorrow, June 2. ESPN's description of one of the cover variants line up with a possible leaked Madden NFL 23 cover spotted in Canton, Ohio. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in that city, and it's hard to believe that coincidence was random. The press release only mentions the cover art, and it's unclear at this time if there will be some new gameplay.
This is one of the few times when executive decision-makers at a large developer are in lockstep with its community as honoring John Madden with Madden NFL 23 cover art feels like the morally right choice to make the first opportunity it could. With Madden's impact, there may be more tributes within the game for the Hall of Fame coach memorializing him this year, and for many years to come.
Madden NFL 23 is in development and is set for release in Summer 2022.
Source: ESPN