In advance of Mut 22 coins the cover's unveiling, the Undefeated's Aaron Dodson caught up with Jackson to discuss the Tecmo Bowl days, how Bo Knows came to life in his Madden return, and much more.

These conversations have been edited to improve clarity and length.

What does it mean to you to finally become a cover player for the sport, 35 years after you started your career?

This has been in the works off and on for years. It was time to get it perfect for my brand. Working with the Madden team to get things sorted out, make sure to cross all the i's, cross all the t's -after we had it done, everything else was just going for it. I knew that somewhere in my life I had done something right to continue to be thought of as one of the iconic players from thirty years ago. Madden continues to believe in me to think of doing something like this.

Your history with video games goes to 1989, when you were the mainstay at Tecmo Bowl. What was it like watching yourself virtually back then?

I still see myself buy Madden 22 coins in Tecmo Bowl. I've still got this video game. I have the game which I could play on. It's just in a box somewhere in storage. It's iconic. It really makes me feel good that I've grown men in their 40s telling me"Hey, my friend and I were involved in the most intense battle of our lives because we each wanted to be in Tecmo Bowl when we were young. Then our parents confiscated the game, and my dad put it in his tools cabinet. The game was unplayable for a while because the battle was so fierce.' I hear that a lot. When I'm at sporting memorabilia events, people are able to come up with the video game. They'll say, "I've have the game machine I played it on. My kids play it. My grandkids play it ... as does everybody still debates about who's gonna become Bo Jackson.' Tecmo Bowl ... that was a lot of technology at the time. When you look at it today and it's like, 'Wow what a great antique.'