Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tom Brady officially announced for Madden cover

Well, it’s officially official. Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, along with Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs are the cover boys for Madden ’22.

The official Twitter account for the game made the announcement on June 17th:

On the surface, it’s easy to see what they’re going for here with the whole “two” them, especially considering this is Madden ’22. However, when the marketing/teaser was centered around the idea of “two GOATs” that part deserves a bit of a deep dive.

When it was implied that the cover would feature “two GOATs” naturally speculations ran rampant, from ourselves included. Who’s going to be with Brady? Will it be a retired legend? Will it be another quarterback? Another position? Turns out the “other GOAT” was Mahomes, which is… something.

This is no disrespect to Mahomes in any way, shape, or form. He is an absolute freak of nature talent athletically and should go down as an all-time great. However, with his award mantle featuring an MVP, Super Bowl win followed by a crushing Super Bowl loss to a pirate-themed team, his legacy is more comparable to Joe Theismann than to any GOATs.

Granted, Mahomes is still very young and does have a 5,000-yard season along with a Super Bowl MVP to his name, but before we put him in the same conversation as Brady, let’s see if he can catch Joe Montana first, or even pass Theismann, before calling him a GOAT.

This will be the first cover of Madden to feature two players on the same cover since Madden ’10  when Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu and Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald were chosen after facing off in Super Bowl XLIII. Madden ’22 will also go with the theme of the previous season’s Super Bowl matchup.

As for the dreaded “Madden Curse”, when Mahomes was featured on the cover of Madden ’20, he did suffer an injury, but he still went on to win Super Bowl MVP of Super Bowl LV. As for Brady, after appearing on Madden ’18, he did avoid injury and was even named MVP that season, but his New England Patriots were defeated by the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII.

Who’s to say what will become of the curse, or if the game will even be any different (probably not). However, Buccaneers fans can at least say that they have one of their own on the cover for the first time in their history.