Madden NFL 09’s cover athlete was Brett Favre, who became the series’ first non-active player to appear on its cover.
EA announced Favre for the cover on April 23, 2008, when the former Green Bay Packers quarterback was officially retired. The choice fit the game’s 20th-anniversary marketing and made Madden NFL 09 notable before its release. The standard cover showed Favre in a Packers uniform.
The situation changed quickly: Favre came out of retirement shortly before the game launched and was traded to the New York Jets. EA did not completely replace the original packaging, but it offered a downloadable alternative cover showing Favre as a Jet. A roster update also placed him on the Jets in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.
A common mix-up is treating the Jets version as the original cover athlete choice. Brett Favre is still the canonical answer because EA selected him while he was retired; the Jets artwork was a later alternative cover.