Yet his trio of games probably wouldn't have been Mut 22 coins feasible without the virtual superstardom attained by him during 1989's Tecmo Bowl, the first console game to earn an endorsement by the NFL to feature players by their name, appearance and image. Today, Jackson in Tecmo Bowl and 1991's Tecmo Super Bowl is considered one of the greatest video game avatars, alongside Michael Vick from Madden NFL 2004.
Madden was first released for PC in 1988, during Jackson's second season of the NFL. But due to licensing issues and a hip injury sustained during that 1990 NFL season that forced his early retirement from football, Jackson never played Madden in his playing days. It wasn't until 2014 that Jackson made his Madden first appearance in Madden as a special-edition member within"the Ultimate Team game mode.
This week, EA Sports 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 buy Madden nfl 22 coins 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.
