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When Peyton Hillis arrived in 2010, the Cleveland Browns were one of the worst franchises in the NFL. They were practically guaranteed to be out of the playoffs by Thanksgiving most seasons. They had the perfect mix of constant chaos: a revolving door at head coach and quarterback, and a front office with a tendency to to step on their own toes.
Amidst this constant uncertainty, Peyton Hillis still managed to take the league by storm, which landed him the honor of making the Madden cover. How did that come to transpire? Here's the story.
Why making the Madden cover matters
The Madden franchise is one of the pillars of NFL merchandise sales. Every year, the Madden cover is greeted with months of speculation, followed by relief and surprise in equal measure. The game is released every August before the NFL season kicks off in September.
The cover of each edition is graced by a player who's had the most spectacular season the year before. Tom Brady, Antonio Brown and Patrick Mahomes have all been on the cover in recent editions. In Madden 12, though, it was running back Peyton Hillis of the Cleveland Browns, front and center.
How Peyton Hillis got on the cover of Madden
Peyton Hillis had a brief peak but what a peak it was. Hillis was drafted by the Denver Broncos in 2008. He spent two seasons with them as an afterthought, featuring in 26 games, eight of them starts. He earned just under 400 yards in those games.
His next landing spot was Cleveland, where his star shone bright. After being brushed off as a low-impact player in 2009, Hillis exploded in 2010, earning 14 starts and taking the field in all 16 games.
In those games, Hillis earned 11 touchdowns and almost 1,200 yards rushing the football. He averaged 4.4 yards per carry.
That season, the Cleveland Browns still finished with a 5-11 record but finished ahead of another team in their division for what would be the only time between 2008-2017.
The fact that the Cleveland Browns had a star made waves throughout the NFL. It was supposedly this sentiment that catapulted Peyton Hillis above all the other greats of that time which included the likes of Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers.
Peyton Hillis cooled off in 2011 and bounced around a couple of teams until his last year in 2014. After Peyton Hillis, the Cleveland Browns would not find themselves in a similar position until the late 2010s, when Baker Mayfield came to town.
