Saquon Barkley, backwards hurdling in the Kelly Green uniform, is the cover star for "Madden NFL 26," EA Sports revealed Monday morning.
@Saquon hurdled his way onto the cover of #Madden26
Coming 8.14.25. Pre-Order Today.
🔗: https://t.co/zm14BbUaJf pic.twitter.com/YyAjxKcCCi— Madden NFL 26 (@EAMaddenNFL) June 2, 2025
Barkley, who signed with the Eagles last offseason, came in and almost immediately reached a level of superstardom that few Philadelphia pro athletes ever have.
The running back pulled off highlight-reel plays nearly every week, became the Eagles' all-time single-season rushing leader with 2,005 yards, and very well could've been just a rest week short of breaking Eric Dickerson's all-time NFL single-season record of 2,105 rushing yards.
Barkley, and the Eagles, happily took the trade-off, though.
Barkley went on to claim the combined NFL rushing record across the regular season and the playoffs with 2,504 yards, and by the end of it all was carrying the Lombardi Trophy down the Ben Franklin Parkway after the Eagles tore through the playoffs and the dynastic Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX as arguably one of the league's most dominant teams ever.
There were an endless number of freeze-frame moments made along the way, too, but if any truly captured how special Barkley was and how much of a difference he made for the Eagles – and the city – it happened Nov. 3 against Jacksonville at home.
Jalen Hurts checked a pass to him behind the line of scrimmage. Barkley took the catch in, shed his first tackler, spun out from the next, and then, somehow with his back turned, jumped right up over the head of the third for a miraculous first down.
Lincoln Financial Field roared, the entire football world felt like it stopped just to admire the play, and the EA Sports developers even shifted to get out a patch that added the move to the current game, "Madden NFL 25," midseason.
SAQUON BARKLEY IS NOT OF THIS WORLD.
📺: #JAXvsPHI on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/UtCENDw6no— NFL (@NFL) November 3, 2024
The "Reverse Hurdle," as it was quickly dubbed, became arguably the 2025 season's defining image, not just for the Eagles but for all of the NFL.
"It was THE best play I've ever seen," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, at a loss for words, said after that game. "Saquon's play, I just – there's gonna be…What I think's so cool is there's gonna be kids all over the country, and all over Philadelphia – I really think about that – trying to make that play and talking about that play and simulating that play as they play backyard football or peewee football. They ain't gonna be able to make it, because that play, I think he's the only one in the world that could do that. I thought it was…I'm speechless, like, it was unbelievable."
And now it'll be on store shelves everywhere on Aug. 14, when the game launches.
Barkley will be the first Eagle to grace the cover of "Madden" in 20 years, joining former quarterback Donovan McNabb, who was the cover star for "Madden NFL 06" following the Birds' NFC Championship run the season prior.
It also looks like EA Sports has a team in Philly shooting some promotional material, as PhillyChitChat on Twitter caught a production crew making some alterations to Geno's Steaks down at 9th and Passyunk.
What the @saquon ? pic.twitter.com/HSwI7IE0xo
— PhillyChitChat (@HughE_Dillon) June 2, 2025
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