Josh Allen on being named Madden 24 cover athlete

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen joins Yahoo Sports’ Matt Harmon to discuss the upcoming Madden 24 release, its impact over the years, and a late 2000s cheat-code QB.

Video transcript

MATT HARMON: Most importantly, why you're here today, is we are excited to announce and to congratulate you on the announcement of being the cover athlete for this year's Madden. I'm sure you're just, like, totally geeked out about the entire thing.

JOSH ALLEN: I'm so incredibly happy. I can't really put into words how much this means to me. And the goal was never to be on the cover of Madden. But to now be the cover athlete, and again, it's a year after John Madden, and to be able to share this little fraternity with some of the best to ever play the game, it's unbelievable. It's very surreal for me.

I learned the game of football by playing Madden. And I've got so many fond memories of me and my brother, my dad playing Madden against each other. It definitely means a lot to me and my family. It's such a huge honor.

MATT HARMON: My best friend growing up was, I mean, he is like my brother, best man at my wedding, the whole thing, and had similar experiences. We're, like, race-- you know, racing each other to get the first controller. We used to do, like, franchise modes and would sim until we could play each other the whole thing. So I feel like everybody has that bond with, like, a brother or a friend.

JOSH ALLEN: Yes, and you-- I mean, it develops a really good bond, a really good friend. Like, if you're not good friends with somebody and you're playing the wrong guy, that could ruin a friendship. Me and my brother, right, we would try to time up where we would pause the button, like press pause while one of us was taking the game winning field goal to try to mess this up. So it caused quite a few discrepancies in the household.

MATT HARMON: Stack up 2004 Michael Vick as a Madden player in 2024 Josh Allen as a Madden player. Who are we taking?

JOSH ALLEN: I mean, Mike Vick is a cheat code, absolute cheat. Like, I think everybody, as soon as you turn that game on, you are picking the Falcons to play with. So I think there's a little bit, in terms of, like, the mobile quarterbacks, there's a few other options. But like, Mike Vick was like, he was it.

You know, everybody wanted that. You got to go with Mike Vick, you know. But this cover is going to be awesome, I can tell you. I can't give you any details, but Western New York is going to be extremely thrilled for this. And I'm so happy that they're going to feel like they get some of the respect that they deserve.

And this is a city that's contributed a lot to football. And it's such a great fan base. And it's something that they can-- they deserve it a little bit, you know. But I think they, most importantly, they deserve the Lombardi Trophy. And that's what I'm trying to bring here. And that's, I'm going to work tirelessly until me and my teammates get that done.