It was the first game of the series since Madden NFL 2002 to not feature EA Trax and instead only had instrumental music, which was met with criticism.

[9] Sources:[10][11] After the success of the Madden NFL 12 cover vote, EA Sports again teamed up with ESPN's fan polling show SportsNation to bring the tournament back for this year's installment.

This occurred because during the vote-in round (March 7–21) Tim Tebow was traded by the Broncos to the Jets after Denver acquired Peyton Manning, and Brandon Lloyd left the Rams to sign with the Patriots.

Only Willis advanced to the third round, with Revis being eliminated by Victor Cruz of the Giants and Allen by Rob Gronkowski of the Patriots.

The only upset by seed in the first round was Willis (an 11-seed) winning 62% of the vote over Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte (a 6-seed).

Two other upsets occurred in the second round with Ray Rice (5-seed) narrowly defeating Drew Brees (4-seed) and Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions (6-seed) taking down Arian Foster of the Houston Texans (3-seed).

Notes Madden NFL 13 uses an original orchestrated score composed by Colin O'Malley, as opposed to licensed songs.