Caleb Williams now owns a slice of football immortality.
Entering his third NFL season, the Bears quarterback was chosen by EA Sports as the cover athlete for the Madden NFL ’27 game, which will be released in full Aug. 13.
Over the game’s history that dates back to the 1990s, there hasn’t been any sort of consistent criteria in choosing the player (or, in some editions, players) to don its cover. John Madden himself graced the cover of each game in the 1990s until Eddie George became the first player to earn the title of cover athlete in the 2001 edition. (A fun piece of trivia: 49ers running back Garrison Hearst was featured on the international release in 1999, but it became an annual tradition after George’s cover debut.)
Most years, the reigning MVP or any other award winner earns the right to be on the Madden cover. But there have been a few unexpected choices, as well. Here’s a look at the four most surprising choices to be featured on the cover of Madden:
4. Caleb Williams—Madden ’27
View this post on Instagram
