December 1, 1991: Tecmo Super Bowl

TORRANCE, Calif. - It was one of the last games released for the original NES, sort of a curtain call for the system that revolutionized video games. It was a game that could have easily been ignored, become a footnote to history as nothing more than a sequel that improved on the original.

When the original Tecmo Bowl was released in 1989, it was considered revolutionary for its time. Using real NFL player names and teams (but not team nicknames, as the NFL didn't give permission), the game was wildly popular, despite its limitations. For example, there were only 12 teams to pick from, there were only nine players per team on the field at once, and each team could only pick four plays.

What Tecmo Bowl did, though, was set the stage for its sequel. Tecmo Super Bowl was released on December 1, 1991, as the creators were looking to cash in on the popularity of the original. The improvements were staggering. For the first time, a video game used every real NFL team as well as the actual names and abilities of real NFL players. It instantly became the most realistic football video game ever made.

There were more improvements. Super Bowl allowed for 11 players on the field for each team, allowed for eight offensive plays, and even allowed players to substitute players and change the playbook. All of these options seem trivial now, but at the time, they were truly revolutionary.

Perhaps the biggest legacy Tecmo Super Bowl had was in helping enhance the legend of certain players. For example, nobody ever played the game without at least once picking the Raiders and using Bo Jackson for a length-of-the-field touchdown run. Christian Okoye had one great year as an NFL runner, a year that happened to coincide with the release of Tecmo Super Bowl, allowing him to achieve video immortality as defenders bounced off his avatar game after game. Lawrence Taylor will always be remembered as a legendary linebacker, but also as a sure-thing kick blocker in Tecmo Super Bowl.

Tecmo Super Bowl quickly developed a cult following. As one of the last NES games released, its short shelf life gave it little chance to grow stale in the minds of gamers; along with Super Mario Brothers 3, it's one of the most fondly remembered NES games. It has also become one of the most emulated, as copies of the game can be found all over the internet, including versions updated with current teams and rosters. The NES has long since gone away, but Tecmo Super Bowl continues to live on.

November 30, 1987: There goes Bo

SEATTLE - Brian Bosworth was a trash-talking, steroid taking phenom linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks in 1987. He was hyped - with much of the hype coming from his own mouth - as the NFL's next great linebacker, and through the first few games of his rookie season, it seemed like he had lived up to everything that was said about him.

Bo Jackson didn't need hype. Everybody knew how good he was. The Heisman Trophy winner in 1986, Jackson had refused to play for Tampa Bay after being drafted in part because the Buccaneers wanted him to choose between baseball and football. He didn't like the ultimatum, eventually joining the Kansas City Royals. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Raiders acquired his rights, saying he could play baseball all he wanted as long as he joined the football team when the season was over.

So Bo did exactly that, joining the Raiders on November 1. In his first four games, Jackson played well in a reserve role, showing he was worth the wait even as the Raiders were losing all four. Bo's fifth game was scheduled to be a Monday Night contest against the Seahawks and their hotshot new linebacker, Bosworth.

Before the game, Bosworth helped stir things up a bit, making a seemingly meaningless game have relevance by claiming he would singlehandedly dominate and control Jackson throughout the game. That, as it turned out, was a mistake.

Whenever highlights are shown of Bo Jackson's football career, two runs are almost always prominiently featured. The first shows Jackson taking a run around the left end, shifting into a gear only he possessed, and burning past the Seattle secondary down the sideline for a 91-yard touchdown, stopping only after he had run halfway up the Kingdome tunnel. The second shows Jackson again running left, sizing up Bosworth waiting for him in the hole, then running over him like the linebacker was a high schooler.

Both of those runs happened in the same Monday Night game in Seattle. Jackson set a Raiders franchise record with 211 yards rushing in that game, sprinting into national prominience in only his fifth NFL game. Bosworth, meanwhile, faded from glory after being run over by Jackson, revealed to be just another all-talk, no action hothead.

Bo Jackson and Brian Bosworth are forever linked, and not just because of Jackson making Bosworth look foolish on a Monday night. Both saw their careers end far too early because of injuries - by the time the 1991 season rolled around, both were out of football for good. But they'll always have that shared moment in Seattle, the night Bosworth called out Bo and got run over for his troubles.

July 11, 1989: Leading off

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Why on earth do you make Bo Jackson your leadoff hitter? He's no leadoff hitter. He's a number 4 or 5 hitter, but how can you put him leading off? Boggs, your number 2 hitter, is a much more natural choice to lead off - he does it all the time. Why Bo?

Oh, you want to start the game with a bang? Well, what if he strikes out? Then what? You've wasted your best hitter on the first at bat of the game, and he'll probably only get one more chance.

It's just an All-Star Game, you say? It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, you say? See, that's part of the problem. People are starting to treat the All-Star Game more and more like an exhibition. Yes, I know that's what it is, but it used to have prestige, be the most anticipated game of the entire summer. Now when people like you do crazy stuff like putting Bo Jackson in the leadoff spot, all it does is announce to the fans that you don't take the game seriously. If you don't, and if the players don't, how are fans supposed to? It's an exhibition, but fans still pay good money to go to the game.

And furthermore ... wait. Where's that ball going? Good God, how strong is that man? What is that, 450 feet? Wow.

.... OK, fine, it worked. Sheesh.


(Watch the video for Jackson's home run, with cameo appearances by Ronald Reagan, Kirby Puckett, and skinny Mark McGwire!)

April 9, 1993: Bo Knows

CHICAGO - The story of Bo Jackson's career sounds like the work of an overzealous screenwriter. You can almost imagine a script meeting...


Make him the best college running back in the country? No, that's not good enough. How about we make him a great baseball player too? Yah! And then we can make him unable to decide between his two loves, so he chooses to play both.

Hmmm. Still not enough. We have to give him flair. How about this: he's such an athletic freak that he can run up outfield walls, and when he strikes out, he breaks the bat in half over his knee. And of course, he has to have blinding speed on the football field and be able to run over 'roided up linebackers like they were high schoolers.

Now he's got to become popular. Let's give him commercials, television appearances. How about this: he appears in a football video game, and his avatar is so dominant that gamers revere him, talking about him in hushed tones years later.

You know, he's got it too good now. People need a good story, some adversity for this guy to overcome. Let's give him a freakish injury. Oooh - how about a dislocated hip! And better yet, let's say that as he's lying on the turf waiting for the trainer to get to him, he's still so strong that he'll pop his own hip back into place. Yah, that will be a good scene. Then we can end the movie with his dramatic comeback from injury...


Bo Jackson's career is still recent enough that sports fans almost take it for granted how good he was. After all, Deion Sanders also played football and baseball simultaneously, and he was just as good as Bo. Plus, he never got hurt, so we had a longer time to enjoy him.

But Bo was the original, the man who made Deion possible. Incredibly, all the things mentioned above about Bo are true, happening between 1985 and 1991. It's that dominant Bo Jackson that most people will remember.

But it's the Bo Jackson from April 9, 1993, that's perhaps the most impressive. A lot of athletes have excelled at two sports to the point where they could have played both professionally if they so desired. But how many had ever played a major league game with an artificial hip?

Two years after getting injured in an NFL playoff game, Bo was back on the baseball diamond, pinch hitting in the sixth inning of the White Sox home opener. And anybody who had followed Bo's career had to know what was coming next...


So when he comes back, his first baseball game back, let's have him take a pitch, then swing on the next one, his first swing with a fake hip, and hit a home run. Then he'll run around the bases and think of the promise he made to his mother that he'd make it back. And he'll cry, because his mom didn't live to see this home run. It'll be a perfect ending to his career. What? Too unrealistic? It'll work, I swear...