Madden 21 Cover Athlete Revealed: Will The Curse Strike?

The cover athlete for Madden 21 has been revealed, and somewhat unsurprisingly it's going to the unanimous NFL MVP. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson will be the cover athlete for this year's entry in the sports franchise.

"It's always been a dream of mine since I was a kid, since I first started playing Madden," Jackson said in a video posted to the Baltimore Ravens Twitter account. "It's dope. For me to be on the cover, it's a dream come true."

Though it seems that the Ravens social media account may have let word slip a little earlier than planned. The official EA Madden Twitter account reacted with some light ribbing, using a video of Jackson as the reaction shot.

Jackson had a record-setting season with the most rushing yards for a quarterback and was voted unanimously to be the 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player. He was the second player in history to win unanimously, after Tom Brady, and was the second-youngest to win, after Jim Brown. He was also the youngest quarterback in NFL history to start a Pro Bowl game.

Largely thanks to Jackson's performance, the Ravens entered the 2019 postseason widely predicted to make it to the Super Bowl. That ended with a postseason loss against the Tennessee Titans, but even then Jackson set yet more records by becoming the first player to throw for more than 300 yards and rush for more than 100 yards in a playoff game.

Last year's cover athlete, Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, went on to win the Super Bowl--despite the ever-present threat of the so-called Madden Curse.

"Madden NFL 20 is an improved version of the annualized professional football series that excels in some areas and leaves something to be desired in others," Eddie Makuch wrote in GameSpot's Madden 20 review. "The new QB1 career mode--which includes a barebones NCAA football experience--overall feels like a half-baked idea that doesn't deliver anything meaningful or interesting. When it comes to the on-the-field action, however, the new X-Factor and Superstar abilities shake up the familiar gameplay formula to give seasoned players and newcomers alike a fresh way to scheme plays and orchestrate strategy on both sides of the ball."