If you subscribe to the notion that Madden is a harbinger of doom and ruination, a cursed talisman that precipitates immediate—and, in some cases, long-lasting—misfortune upon whoever is unlucky enough to grace its facade, then you probably felt deep pangs of despair when it was announced the Steelers’ wide receiver Antonio Brown would be the cover-boy of the latest title of EA Sports’s powerhouse franchise.
Beginning in 2000 (confusingly, with Madden 2001), more than a dozen years following its inception, Madden begun putting NFL stars on its cover, that year substituting Tennessee Titans’ running back Eddie George for the titular John Madden, a Hall of Fame coach whose memory will endure long after he leaves this earth, thanks in no smart part to the omnipresence of each iteration of the Madden franchise.