This week, EA Sports Madden 22 coins announced that not only will Jackson make a return to play for the first time in a while in the history of Madden NFL 15 in 1987, but Jackson will also be awarded the privilege of becoming a Madden cover athlete. Nearly 35 years after his NFL career began with the 1987 season, Jackson has been selected to be on the digital cover of Madden NFL 22. Beginning on Friday, players will once again be capable of playing with him online. EA Sports also teamed up with Nike to re-create the company’s iconic Bo Knows ad campaign by incorporating a digitally rendered version of his iconic shoe, The Nike Air Bo Turf, into the game.
Jackson will be the seven running backs to have been designated a Madden cover athlete, following Eddie George (Madden 2001), Marshall Faulk (Madden 2003), Shaun Alexander (Madden 2007), Peyton Hillis (Madden 12), Adrian Peterson and Barry Sanders (both Madden 25).
In advance of the cover’s unveiling, The Undefeated’s Aaron Dodson caught up with Jackson to talk about Jackson’s Tecmo Bowl days, how Bo Knows came to life during his Madden return, and much more.
It has been edited to improve clarity and to length.
What does it mean to you to finally become an athlete who covers the game 35 years after the start of your career?
This has been in the works off and on for many years. It was time to get it perfect for my brand. In collaboration with the Madden team to smooth things out, make sure that all the dots are crossed, dot all the t’sonce we were done, the rest was just going along with it. I realized that, somewhere in my history I’d done something right to continue to be thought of as one of the great players from 30 years ago. Madden still thinks enough of me to do something like this.
Your history with video games goes to buy mut coins 1989, in which you became the face on the stage at the Tecmo Bowl. What was it like seeing yourself from the back of your mind?
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