You know you have done something ridiculous on a football field when special effects are needed to put it on a game cover. In Week 9 of the NFL season, Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley reverse-hurdled Jarrian Jones of the Jacksonville Jaguars, forever turning him into the wrong end of a trivia question. The Eagles wouldn't have been too happy with one of their best players doing repeated 360 hurdles at a photo shoot, so EA used a wired harness to recreate the effect.
"I got to actually do the hurdle again and realized the move that I made was, you know, kind of special because we had to strap me into a harness and do all this crazy stuff," Barkley told ESPN. "But it definitely made me respect a guy like Tom Holland who does all these superhero movies and is strapped in all the time. It's definitely harder than you think."
In the same interview, the superstar said the cover shoot was harder because when he did the move in real life, it was just instinct. The wires made it harder to negotiate the landing. He and Eagle fans were probably thinking about his two-year, $41 million contract on that landing as well.
Barkley's 2024 campaign earned him that contract extension, a Super Bowl ring and the Madden cover, something he has dreamed of since he was a little kid. He also earned the coveted 99 overall rating. What other surprises do Saquon and Madden 26 have in store? We'll find out tomorrow when EA Sports reveals more details in the first Madden 26 livestream.