Every single ‘Madden 99 Club NFL’ cover Athlete, History, Photos

We take a look at all of the players who have received the coveted 99 overall ranking in Madden history

With the Madden 24 cover being revealed, we look back at the history of the video game cover athlete curse.

As EA Sports releases Madden 24 to the world this week, we take a look back at the history of the Madden Curse. The video game’s first iteration was released in 1988 and had none other than its namesake, John Madden, on its cover.

In 1998 though, EA put San Francisco 49ers running back Garrison Hearst on the cover of Madden NFL 99. Hearst suffered a severe ankle break during a game shortly after that required years of rehabilitation.

And if it had stopped there, no one would have thought twice about the connection. But it didn’t.

What is the Madden 99 Club?

The ‘99 Club’ refers to the group of players to receive the game’s top ranking at 99 overall for a given year. The honor is reserved for the absolute best players the NFL has to offer and going through the list of 99’s provides a good snapshot of who was dominating the league at the time.

Since 2000, at least one active or former NFL player has been selected to be the cover athlete of the game.

Below, we’ll go through all of the covers for Madden since 2000.

List of Every Madden 99 NFL Cover Athletes by Year

Here’s every Madden cover athlete by year

Madden NFL 27 - Caleb Williams