Madden 18 isn’t Tom Brady’s first video game cover

Tom Brady landed his first ever Madden cover but it’s not the first time he was a video game cover boy.

For the first time in his career, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady landed the cover of Madden. It’s a little surprising that it has taken Brady this long to get the kind of legacy respect involved with being on the Madden cover, but it’s not the first time he’s graced the cover of a football video game.

Let’s turn back the clock 14 years to when Brady was the cover athlete on NFL Gameday 2003 — a game you probably never played and forgot it existed.

Madden is devoting a ‘G.O.A.T.’ edition for Brady this year, but 989 Studios and NFL Gameday jumped on that train right away. The game came out after Brady’s first Super Bowl win but before he won his second and fully established himself as a G.O.A.T in the making.

The whole opening sequence was basically Brady porn for Patriots fans before that was a thing:

NFL Gameday was actually a legit franchise for a while, competing directly with EA and Madden, doing so rather adequately. However the Brady edition of the game was the penultimate edition in the franchise’s history, as 989 folded their football game after the 2004 edition was released. Since then, EA and Madden have had a monopoly on NFL gaming rights.

While 989 Studios and NFL Gameday weren’t able to stay in the game long term, they had the vision to recognize greatness before it was abundantly clear that Brady’s greatness would be consistent. Call it that or a time capsule of the NFL at that time, but Madden is second fiddle to NFL Gameday in the Tom Brady cover athlete sweepstakes. They might not have a franchise anymore, but all these years later 989 Studios is getting the last chuckle.

Also, the Brady vs. Manning NFL video game cover score remains as lopsided as their playoff record against one another.