One of the things that sports fans can always look forward to are the announcement of cover athletes for sports video games every year. Considering the hours that we’ve all logged on games like Chel, NBA 2K or Madden, it’s a big honour for athletes to get those covers — it means we’re going to be staring at their faces all year.
Usually, the cover athlete choices are straightforward. They’ll be among the biggest stars in their sport at the time of the game’s release.
Still, some have been more mind-boggling, and others have aged poorly. The Madden Curse and all, right?
Let’s go through some of the most random athletes for video game covers ever.
Peyton Hillis - Madden NFL 12
If we’re going to have a conversation about the Madden Curse, then we should talk about Peyton Hillis, who might as well be the Curse’s poster boy.
After a breakout season in his first year with the Cleveland Browns, Hillis earned cover honours for the next year's Madden game... and then promptly experienced a rapid decline in his play. It didn't help that his talks about a contract extension with the Browns broke down before the season started, and he was never the same. Hillis even blamed his play on the Madden Curse.
Marty Turco - NHL 2K6
Ahh, the NHL 2K series. Talk about a relic of the past. Around the time that EA Sports' NHL series was pulling cover athletes such as Markus Naslund, Vincent Lecavalier and a guy by the name of Alex Ovechkin, 2K got... Marty Turco.
Turco was a terrific goalie who experienced a long and fruitful NHL career, especially with the Dallas Stars, but when you measure him up against the usual guys we see on our video game covers, something just seems off, right?
Ben Wallace - ESPN NBA 2K5
For the first five years of the series' existence in the early 2000s, NBA 2K featured Allen Iverson on the cover, which was just perfect. Nobody has ever had street cred and cultural impact like A.I. had.
Then, when 2K finally decided to change things up, they decided to go with Ben Wallace. Wallace, one of the NBA’s best shot-blockers, was coming off a championship with the Detroit Pistons that year, but when has defense sold video games? Wallace might go down in history as the only player to average less than 10 points and then get a video game cover.
Yasiel Puig - MLB The Show 15
Through his first two years in the MLB, Yasiel Puig was an absolute sensation. After he was named The Show’s cover athlete, however, he fell from grace fast. Injuries were a factor, and he was demoted to Triple-A baseball in 2016. Even though he's just 30 years old, he hasn't played a game since the 2019 season.
Adam Morrison - NCAA March Madness 07
Look, you can’t really blame the video game for this one. Adam Morrison was one of college basketball's best players over his career, good enough to go third overall in the 2006 NBA Draft. It just so happens that history remembers Morrison was one of the biggest draft busts ever, and this cover has not aged well as a result.
