Barry Sanders, one of the most elusive and electric running backs in NFL history, has beaten out Adrian Peterson, currently the best running back in the NFL and the reigning league MVP, for the cover of Madden 25, the 25th installment of the most popular sports gaming franchise to ever hit store shelves.
The decision was announced on ESPN2's SportsNation; they revealed that Sanders received 58 percent of over 40 million votes to score a hotly contested battle for the iconic cover. Peterson showed respect to the legend following his defeat, tweeting, "Congrats to my guy Barry Sanders for winning the 2013 Madden Cover! Any other guy to take me down... it would've been a problem! Salute."
This will be the second time Barry Sanders was on the cover of Madden (he was in the background of Madden 2000's cover), and the second consecutive season a Detroit Lion will be featured. Last year, Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson laid waste to the famed "Madden Curse" which in the past doomed cover men to injuries or poor play during that season. Johnson went on to break Jerry Rice's single-season receiving yards record with 1,964.
Peterson's 2012 MVP campaign was comparable to even Sanders' best work. "All Day" fell just shy of the single-season rushing record set by Eric Dickerson in in 1984 (2,105 yards) by rushing for an astounding 2,097 yards despite tearing his anterior cruciate ligament late in 2011. Only seven players in NFL history have broken 2,000 yards rushing in a season: in order they are O.J. Simpson, Dickerson, Sanders, Terrell Davis, Jamal Lewis, Chris Johnson, and Peterson.
In his storied 10-year career with the Lions, Sanders compiled a whopping 15,269 yards on the ground and hit pay dirt 99 times. He also caught 352 passes for 2,921 yards and 10 touchdowns. In 1998, Sanders carried the rock 343 times for 1,491 yards and four touchdowns before shocking the football world and retiring for good.
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