Iceman meets Madden: How Caleb Williams became the iconic video game's newest cover athlete
Story by Gabby Hajduk

Bears quarterback Caleb Williams was announced as the EA SPORTS Madden NFL 27 cover athlete on Wednesday, etching his name in history as the first player in franchise history to be featured on the cover of the video game. Go behind the scenes with Williams during his cover photo shoot in Los Angeles.

Caleb Williams is no stranger to making history in Los Angeles. The city was the backdrop for the final two seasons of his illustrious college football career, where he became a record-setting Unanimous First-Team All-American quarterback at USC, won the Heisman Trophy as the best player in the country in 2023 and readied himself to become the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Bears in 2024.

Williams headed to L.A. ready to make history there for the first time as an NFL player — to be photographed as the first-ever Chicago Bear to grace the main cover of the iconic Madden video game (former offensive lineman Roberto Garza was featured on the cover of EA SPORTS Madden NFL 09 en Español). Much like during his USC days, Williams has set an expectation of creating historic moments through his first two seasons in Chicago, whether it be setting the single-season franchise record with 3,942 passing yards last year, leading the team to its best season in 15 years or completing passes so mind-boggling that they'll forever be pieces of NFL lore on the internet.

But when Williams learned of this historic accolade following a workout at Halas Hall, Williams experienced feelings of joy rooted in nostalgia. He thought of his younger self who used to spend hours playing Madden and building his own superteams.

"I went upstairs [at Halas Hall] and hung out with [chief administrative officer] Ted [Crews] and [President & CEO] Kevin [Warren], and they ended up popping it up on me and telling me that I was going to be the cover athlete," Williams recalled. "I was super excited, super juiced. Excited to be the first Bear to be a part of this and the cover athlete.

"It's something like a wishing star, a shooting star, a dream come true. It's all of the above. Everything and more."

That excitement flowed through Williams while he spent nearly five hours on the Stage 6 set at an L.A. production lot shooting the EA SPORTS Madden NFL 27 cover.

Before Williams arrived on set, the creative team, led by EA SPORTS, had every detail prepared for the shoot, starting with a massive wardrobe room full of outfits, shoes and accessories specifically tailored toward Williams' streetwear style.

In that same room laid Williams' typical gameday attire, all of which was shipped from Chicago by the Bears equipment staff. From every uniform combination to his captain's patch to his playsheet wristband down to the QB-specific football, each and every detail was thought out.

Upon arrival around 2 p.m., Williams immediately went to work, first knocking out a couple of independent photo shoots unrelated to the cover, including one on a set designed by internet personality and filmmaker Zach King that makes the QB appear to break out of a wall and hit his iconic Iceman pose.

Putting on his full uniform, including the navy home jersey, for the first time since the Bears' divisional playoff game against the Rams Jan. 18, Williams felt a wave of energy hit him and immediately got the itch to get back on a football field.

While Williams couldn't exactly run back onto Soldier Field in that moment, he instead trotted onto the turf set where he recorded videos and soundbites for the Madden video game.

With the help of Sandy Fletcher, a movement coach and former USC receiver that specializes in helping athletes keep their actions and cadence natural to ensure the game motion is realistic, Williams acted out calling plays, breaking the huddle, running into the end zone for touchdowns, throwing the football and celebrating big moments.

Just before 3 p.m., the main event was underway.

EA SPORTS creative director Josh Kline, EA SPORTS art director Paul Rosales and freelance photographer Joshua Kissi walked Williams through their vision for the three creative sets that would be utilized for the main cover, a Deluxe Cover and ancillary promotion material.

When developing the creative vision for the Madden cover each year, the team first aims to answer a series of questions once the athlete is chosen.

"What do they do that only they do? What are they great at? What sets them apart from a behavior, personality, on-the-field perspective?" Kline detailed.

The group started with 20 concepts for the cover, narrowed it down to six or seven options, then solidified three main sets for Williams that showcased his performance, persona and potential — the qualities that make up each Madden cover athlete.

"We go to what's natural and authentic to that player, which is key to EA SPORTS," Kline added. "And then we start to think creatively about how we build on that. For Caleb, it's thinking about the city of Chicago, the Iceman, his signature moves."

The entire creative team felt very strongly about one specific shot for the main cover, choosing to focus on the "signature moves" aspect and having Williams recreate the "jump throw" he has pulled off several times in games, typically while on the run, that coincidentally mirrors Michael Jordan's legendary Jumpman logo.

In a 30-minute span, Williams recreated his acrobatic move over 20 times.

Kissi, the sole photographer in charge of capturing the perfect shot, moved around to hit every angle as the group worked to figure out which one would make for the most accurate, proportional and flattering shot.

"When I first heard about the idea, I was super excited because growing up playing Madden is such a traditional video game legacy, so it was beautiful to be able to interpret that through my own vision," Kissi said. "As a kid, I don't think I would have ever thought I'd be somebody photographing the cover of the game. I'm born and raised in the Bronx, kid from NYC, so it's just a pleasure to be able to photograph this with Caleb, the Bears, EA and make history."

While Williams was used to contorting his body this way on the fly during games, it wasn't something he specifically practiced. Each part of the pose had to be perfect. Eyes engaged. Catching air on the jump, but not too much. His throwing arm in a natural position at the peak of the throw. Each part of the jump was nuanced and detailed.

"Everybody here was great," Williams said of the shoot. "Everything ran easy. They were great, and from there it was just getting up there and posing and jumping around, doing some personalized moves that I do on the football field that everybody's seen me do. Just trying to recreate those for the game."

By 3:30, the team felt confident they had the shot, allowing Williams to take his helmet off, wipe the sweat that had formed from the rigorous movement and cool down before the remainder of the shoot.

Next came shooting a series of promotional materials, which included shooting cinematic stills of Williams while orange and blue lights shone on Williams, creating a glowing, Bears-inspired aura on him.

To promote the video game itself, the creative team played into Williams' genuine love for Madden, his gameday necessities like an iced matcha and wired headphones as well as his painted nails, ensuring every piece of the rollout felt authentic.

At 4:45, Williams appeared to leave sunny L.A. and enter the frozen tundra that is Chicago in the winter months, and of course, the backdrop of Bears home games in December and January.

For EA SPORTS Madden NFL 27's Deluxe Cover, EA SPORTS decided on an "Iceman" set, which pays homage to the fitting nickname assigned to Williams last season after leading the Bears to a series of clutch comeback victories in the regular season. The Iceman moniker hit another level in the playoffs when Williams completed an eighth fourth-quarter comeback – an NFL record for one season – against the Packers at Soldier Field in the wild card round.

The set's original form featured fake snow on the ground and a fog machine to create a dusting effect at Williams' feet.

However, the real fun came when "snow!" was yelled on set and bubbles of soap rained down on Williams to simulate a snowy evening at Soldier Field — a setting that even had Williams mesmerized for a brief moment.

As the bubbles sat static in the air, the wardrobe team added a special touch, giving Williams one of the Bears' cold-weather capes that he is used to donning on frigid gamedays.

A surprise to no one, the Iceman set was an instant favorite for Williams, who added, "The snow, Iceman one was sick. First time doing that since the new name, so it's fun."

Rounding out the jam-packed day was a city edition set, which aimed to create more of a lifestyle and fashion-forward feel. Williams worked with the wardrobe team to select a few different outfits that both fit his style and properly encapsulate their vision.

With the Chicago skyline projected behind him, Williams posed in a black Bears varsity jacket, an orange streetwear-inspired jacket and his white No. 18 jersey.

Wrapping up the shoot around 7 p.m., Williams walked off the final set exhausted, yet empowered and never losing the child-like joy he walked onto Stage 6 with earlier that afternoon.

Williams finished his day with some additional content appearances and talked to Bears content presenter Jasmine Baker about the special day, joking that he hopes to not only be the first Bears player on the cover, but "go back-to-back." If not him, he has a couple of ideas which other Bears could land on the cover next.

"After me, I hope Colston [Loveland]," Williams said. ""It would be sick to have a defensive player in there that had an insane year, so maybe one of our corners, maybe one of our D-linemen — 'Tez (Montez Sweat). They could do a cool thing with 'Tez. We've got a bunch of high-level guys."

While beginning to envision what his Madden cover debut would look like, Williams understood the gravity of what this moment will mean to Bears fans and all the young kids who would soon pick up the video game, see Williams and envision themselves on the cover one day.

That type of sentimental impact is not lost on Williams.

"Obviously the main objective is to go out there and win games and win championships," Williams said. "And then the second one for me is to be able to build a legacy. That's really important, and a lot of that stems from winning games and winning championships, but the second part of it is being able to create memories, whether it's for the NFL or being able to create memories for the organization.

"I think we've been able to do that so far and there's a lot more to come. I'm really excited about that, to be able to keep growing with coach [Johnson] and a bunch of other guys and go win these big games and keep building that legacy."