The upcoming sports game Madden NFL 27 has landed its new cover athlete… and he hails from the Monsters of the Midway.
The star QB (Quarterback) of Da Bears, Caleb Williams, has been chosen as the cover athlete of Madden NFL 27, as officially revealed by Madden‘s Twitter account. This game cover announcement was posted ahead of the game’s full reveal.
As further reported by ABC News, Caleb Williams in the cover is seen jumping in a mid-air pose with the Chicago Skyline behind him. The Deluxe Edition has its own separate cover of Caleb with his arms crossed, likely another reference to his nickname “The Iceman,” which itself was drawn from several major highlight-worthy comeback plays from the 2025-2026 NFL Season. With this achievement, Caleb has become the first Chicago Bears player to be featured on a Madden video game cover, bringing back delightful childhood memories for the QB (via ESPN). It’s no doubt an exciting moment for Madden NFL and Chicago Bears fans.
On the flip side however, Caleb being featured on the cover of Madden NFL 27 still brings in a rather uncomfortable question that fans familiar with the Madden franchise are all too familiar with: What about the Madden Curse?
The Madden Curse has been a long-running curse associated with EA’s popular NFL gaming franchise. It’s where the cover athlete of a given Madden title ends up suffering a major sports injury or his performance goes on some kind of downward trajectory. CBS Sports highlights several examples of “cursed” NFL cover athletes as far back as 2002, as well as some who seemingly held off the curse. Perhaps needless to say, but with some recent Madden cover athletes not getting afflicted by the Madden Curse, only time will tell if Caleb Williams and the Bears will be able to hold off the curse during the upcoming NFL Season.
In the meantime, the Chicago Bears have released a gallery of the Behind The Scenes making of the Madden NFL 27 cover. Additionally, here’s the past 10 years of featured Madden cover athletes (via ESPN) preceding Caleb Williams:
| Game | Cover Athlete(s) |
| Madden NFL 17 | Rob Gronkowski (New England Patriots) |
| Madden NFL 18 | Tom Brady (New England Patriots) |
| Madden NFL 19 | Antonio Brown (Pittsburgh Steelers) |
| Madden NFL 20 | Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs) |
| Madden NFL 21 | Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens) |
| Madden NFL 22 | Tom Brady (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs) |
| Madden NFL 23 | John Madden (first Madden NFL cover appearance since 2000) |
| Madden NFL 24 | Josh Allen (Buffalo Bills) |
| Madden NFL 25 | Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco 49ers) |
| Madden NFL 26 | Saquon Barkley (Philadelphia Eagles) |
Madden NFL 27 is set to launch later this year for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
