The Madden NFL 15 cover athlete has been revealed. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman will grace the cover this year.

Sherman, who is the third defensive player to ever earn a cover, beat out Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton and a number of other famous athletes for the spot. Chicago Bears wideout Alshon Jeffery, New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham, and the San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick were all included in the Madden NFL 15 cover vote. Throughout the campaign, 9.6 million football fans voted for their favorite athletes."Winning the cover is a kid's dream come true," Sherman told ESPN . "I would never be in the position without my fellow Legion of Boom members and teammates."In addition to revealing Sherman as the cover athlete, EA also released the first gameplay video of Madden NFL 15 today, which you can watch below.Madden NFL 15 will introduce new pass rush moves, an intuitive tackling system, improved coverage logic, new camera angles, and a crowd-sourced recommendation engine which allows fans to call plays.More Madden NFL 15 details will be unveiled at this year's E3, so stay tuned to IGN for more details.

Leah B. Jackson is both an Associate Editor at IGN and Corgi megafan, and not necessarily in that order. Follow her on Twitter and MyIGN