There are good ways to make history, and there are bad ways to make history.
For instance: a good way to make history is being so unbelievably good at football that you get put on the cover of a video game. Only, like, two dozen football players in the history of the NFL have been good enough to be featured on the cover of Madden, even if it maybe does come with a bit of a weird curse.
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But because life is unfair and the Jaguars are the Jaguars, even they couldn't land on the Madden cover the right way. After over two decades in the league, a Jacksonville player was featured ("featured") on this year's version of the game – just not the way fans probably expected, and certainly not the way any fans asked for. The game announced on Monday that Eagles running back Saquon Barkley would be this year's cover athlete, but failed to mention that it would, apparently, come at the expense of Jaguars fans once again.
Jaguars' Jarrian Jones made the Madden cover in the bleakest way possible
If you’re Jarrian Jones you objectively get to tell people you were on the cover of Madden, which I suppose isn’t really a silver lining but still https://t.co/sOJ97yl9XO
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) June 2, 2025
There's an internet full of jokes about this cover if you're a Jaguars sicko and really want to try and fight through it, but I honestly just feel bad for Jones at this point. Not only is he going to never live down that highlight on YouTube, but now he's got to stare at it on the front cover of *Madden* forever. I hope they at least sent him a free copy. And frankly, they should probably just give him a cut of this year's revenue – can't have an all-time great Saquon Barkley jumping highlight with someone to jump over.
I guess I appreciate that they took the Jaguars logo off the helmet – maybe in a few years everyone will forget who he jumped over in the first place. That is, except for Jones; I don't think he'll forget that any time soon. Maybe he can fire up a Jags-Eagles game and finally get redemption. It's not much, but maybe it counts for something? And if you think this blog is coping too much, just imagine how Jones feels.