The cover athlete for Madden NFL 21 has been announced. On Tuesday, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was on a video conference call with local reporters, and he said that he’ll be the new face of the football video game made by EA Sports. The news comes a few months after Jackson was named NFL MVP of the 2019 season.
“It’s always been a dream of mine since I was a little kid, since I first started playing Madden,” Jackson said. “It’s dope. I have every Madden. To me to be on the front of it, it’s a dream come true.” Jackson, who is entering his third year in the NFL, was asked about being worried about the Madden curse since they started putting players on the cover instead of John Madden. Jackson replied: “Patrick Mahomes is on the front and he won [Super Bowl] MVP. I want that curse. I hope that’s a curse.”
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Lamar says he’ll be on the cover of Madden: pic.twitter.com/bPtzFBIlVI
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) April 21, 2020
EA Sports has yet to make an official announcement, but having Jackson on the cover is an easy choice. In his second season in the NFL, he took the league by storm. The Louisville alum finished the season with 36 touchdowns passes, which led the NFL. He also recorded 1,206 rushing yards, which is a new NFL single-season rushing record for quarterbacks. Additionally, he led the Ravens to a 14-2 record and the No. 1 seed in the AFC. However, the Ravens came up short in the playoffs as they lost to the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round. Jackson took some heat after the loss, but head coach John Harbaugh defended his quarterback.
“He’s 23 years old,” he told reporters after the loss, per Bleacher Report. “He’s younger than Joe Burrow, OK? So he’s got a pretty good head start right now. I mean, he’s along the way. The Manning brothers combined to … they had five losses in their first five playoff games before they won one. [Joe] Montana, [Steve] Young and [Brett] Favre didn’t start a playoff game until their third season. [Drew] Brees and [Troy] Aikman until their fourth season, and [Aaron] Rodgers until his fifth season. Interesting.”
Madden NFL 21 will be the latest release of the Madden NFL franchise, which began in 1988. Some of the NFL players who have been on the cover are Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Barry Sanders, Brett Favre, Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Eddie George, Richard Sherman, Donavan McNab, and Antonio Brown.
