So, it was 1991.. the heydays of the NES. my favorite, older nephew who was more like my cousin was excited about Tecmo super bowl coming out. We both enjoyed Tecmo bowl as well. I was 12 years old and he lived with my older sister and cool husband at the time. They were some of my favorite people, lived and hour away in farm country but I stayed the weekend with them once in awhile which was always a blast for me at that age. It was a Friday after school and they drove up to my house and he showed me his new copy of Tecmo super bowl.. excited, I asked if I could stay the night with them and my parents said yes, which was awesome because that wasn’t a guarantee. They surprised me, I got packed and got in the car for an hour drive to their house.
Me, my older brother in law and my older nephew decided to start a season. My nephew picked Atlanta because he was a huge Deion Sanders fan, my brother in law picked Buffalo because he was older, not as good, and they had a good team but not the best. I went with Detroit because I loved Barry Sanders. Eager to play, we jumped right in. Every game was hilarious and serious as we took turn playing our season games against the computer. Every game we discussed the stats, how we played, we made fun of each other, we lauded our great plays, we laughed, we got angry at our missteps. It became a serious competition. We checked out the stats after completing a week in the season. I had to go back home the next way, but we were in too deep. We had to finish the season to see who would win so we resolved to stay up all night and get it done.. towards the end of the season we were exhausted, but still into it. At one point my brother in law fell asleep, we woke him up to play when it was his turn and play he did. It was great.. we finished the season sometime around 3am and decided we would start the playoffs after we get a little sleep, all three of us made the playoffs, and we all commended our star players while looking over the stats at the end of the season..
We all woke up early enough to finish the playoffs before I had to go. My brother in law had the best team but we saw he didn’t necessarily have what it takes.., he met my nephew in the playoffs and was defeated. I barely made it to the super bowl as Detroit, and had to use Rodney Peete to run and get first downs since Barry sanders was in bad condition, but I did it. My nephew was talking trash the whole time and he thought he had me coming into the super bowl, but I pulled out the victory. It was awesome, the season completed in a night was so memorable and fun, and I know it will never be repeated, because they don’t make games like that anymore, they’re far more realistic.. it was my best memory of playing video games, we all had a great time and bonded all throughout. My nephew passed away a few years ago, but we all cherished that memory our whole lives.