By this point everyone knows Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley is this years cover athlete for the new Madden game. Obviously, a huge and well deserved honor for Barkley after helping lead the Philadelphia Eagles to their second Super Bowl.
First and foremost, the cover art itself is sick, as they recreated his backwards hurdle from the game against the Jaguars.
Now to the concern that some people out there have now that Saquon is gracing the cover of the classic video game…
The Madden Curse.
Now, I was a firm believer in the Madden Curse when I was younger. I mean you couldn’t go a year without the cover athlete of Madden getting injured. Do I still believe that it’s a thing?
Yes, yes I do. There have been wayyyyyy too many examples of bad things happening to whoever ends up as the cover athlete. Last year for example Christian McCaffrey, we all know how his year went. If you don’t lets just say it was riddled with injuries and he only ended up playing in four games and looked like a shell of his former self.
Now the year before that the cover athlete was Josh Allen, he actually played pretty well that season and avoided any major injuries. The only bad thing was he threw a career high in interceptions.
Over the last ten years the Madden curse has not been as relevant as it once was. But there have still been enough examples that it’s for sure a thought in the back of my head.
So am I that concerned about Saquon? No not really, buuuuutttttt the last time an Eagle was on the cover was back in 2006 when Donovan McNabb was the cover athlete.
That year McNabb would suffer a sports hernia injury in week one and try and continue to play through it before finally electing to get surgery.
If this was back in the mid 2000s I would be way more concerned about Barkley being on the cover. Instead it’s 2025 and the Eagles are coming off winning their second Super Bowl. Nothing and I mean nothing is going to bring me down from that high and until the season starts I will be on cloud nine. I will continue to bask in the glory that we are Super Bowl Champions and gladly remind anyone and everyone of that fact.
Maybe next year Jalen Hurts can be the cover athlete after the Eagles go back to back. Go Birds baby!!!!
-Walsh
The Philly Phan Cave 
Leave a comment