Madden NFL 97 is the first Madden NFL football game to be created in the 32-bit gaming era. It was originally created for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, but other versions were also released, including the 16-bit Super NES and Genesis.

This was the first edition of Madden to implement the use of a salary cap when customizing team rosters. It also featured the new Baltimore Ravens, the expansion franchise that absorbed the roster of the Cleveland Browns for the 1996 season. The game also adds a team of real free agents (as opposed to the blank slate used in Madden 96) which can be traded and added to other teams’ rosters (led by recently semi-retired quarterback Randall Cunningham), and could be played by using a cheat code.

Madden 97 was the number one selling game on the PlayStation including all games released in 1996.