Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley will grace the cover of Madden 26 in style this summer, becoming just the second Eagles player in franchise history to be featured on the cover of the popular video game.
Barkley follows in the footsteps of San Francisco 49ers star Christian McCaffrey, who was Madden 25's cover athlete and subsequently got "cursed" with an injury-ravaged season that limited him to just four games. The frightful Madden curse aside, McCaffrey sent Barkley a classy message in which he passed the symbolic torch to his NFC rival, who came tantalizingly close to breaking the NFL's single-season rushing record last year.
"Honored to pass the torch to @saquon! Well-deserved - soak it in!" McCaffrey wrote in the caption of his Instagram video post to Barkley on Monday.
In the video, McCaffrey said, "Saquon, congrats man! Madden 26 for No. 26. It's my honor to be passing down the Madden cover to you, keeping it within the running back family, we gotta keep it that way. So fired up for you man, you've been pushing the standards since college, and to see all your success is no shock to me. Congrats man, enjoy it, and hope to see you soon."
That said, fans who might be slightly on edge about the infamous Madden Curse striking Barkley this upcoming season have every right to be worried. The last four running backs to grace the Madden cover were McCaffrey, Adrian Peterson/Barry Sanders (2014), Peyton Hillis (2012) and Shaun Alexander (2007). Not counting Sanders, who was retired when he graced the cover, every back but Peterson suffered injuries during the NFL season that immediately followed their Madden cover reveal. Even Peterson missed time that year and his 1,266-yard performance was a sharp decline from his MVP season a year earlier.
Hopefully Barkley can overcome the curse and make it through 2025–26 unscathed as the Eagles look to defend their Super Bowl title this fall.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Christian McCaffrey Sent Awesome Message to Saquon Barkley After Madden Cover Reveal.
