All-Time Super Tecmo Bowl Team
Unless you’ve been sleeping for the past week, odds are you’ve seen, played or avoided the most recent version of John Madden football. Thanks to Maddenpalooza, the 20th Anniversary edition came equipped with its own press coverage on ESPN. Granted, that’s a bit much if you ask me, but on the flipside, it got me thinking about how far we’ve come since the days when three-on-three football was all the rage.
Yet for as dominant as the Madden franchise has become, I couldn’t help but think back to a simpler time. So I decided to take a ride in the DeLorean and have brought back a treat for every NFL fan who also happens to be an avid gamer.
You can have your fancy All-Madden teams, because I’ll take on any challenge with my All-Time Tecmo Super Bowl team!
Quarterbacks
QB Eagles (Randall Cunningham) – Philadelphia Eagles
Think Michael Vick, only 100-times more dominant. QB Eagles could heave the ball downfield while running backwards and dodging three defensive linemen. On top of that, he was lightening quick in the open field.
Dan Marino – Miami Dolphins
He might have been super slow, but who needs to run when you’ve got the Marks Brothers. For all intents and purposes, covering Clayton and Duper was almost impossible.
Warren Moon – Houston Oilers
Moon wasn’t as quick as QB Eagles, but the WR tandem of Drew Hill and Ernest Givins couldn’t be taken lightly, thus turning Moon into my choice for third best QB in the game (and yes I’d take him over Joe Montana and Jim Kel…I mean QB Bills).
Running Backs
Christian Okoye – Kansas City Chiefs
In a game with so many elite RB’s, the Nigerian Nightmare was KING! He combined brute strength with speed, which pretty much made him unstoppable. To this day he remains my all-time favorite video athlete.
Bo Jackson – Los Angeles Raiders
If ever there was a 1A, this would be it, because there’s no denying Bo knows Tecmo Super Bowl!
Barry Sanders – Detroit Lions
Difficult as this might be to imagine, Barry really was the third best back in the game; but I guess being the best RB in reality kind of makes up for that, doesn’t it?
Wide Receivers
Jerry Rice – 49ers
Is an explanation really necessary?
Henry Ellard – Los Angeles Rams
Considering many of you probably didn’t play with this team, the selections likely a surprising one. Having said that, I’m here to tell you Ellard was the freakin’ man in Tecmo Super Bowl! He was quick enough to flat-out burn the defensive backs, and never dropped a pass.
Andre Rison – Atlanta Falcons
Younger NFL fans might find this hard to believe, but there was a time when Andre Rison was among the best wide receivers in the game, and there’s no better example of that than what you’ll find in this game.
Tight Ends
Keith Jackson – Philadelphia Eagles
As far as tight ends go, none has ever been better than Jackson. He was big, fast and sure-handed, which is all you could ask for.
Jay Novacek – Dallas Cowboys
He’s still a fan-favorite and rightfully so.
Jim Jensen – Miami Dolphins
This one’s another fairly surprising entry, especially when you throw in the fact he wasn’t even the starter. Aside from that, the game truly did justice for a man whose nicknamed “Crash.”
Best Linemen
Reggie White – Philadelphia Eagles
The Minister of Defense couldn’t be blocked. If you were a master of the game, odds were in favor of a sack when ever you took control of White.
Bruce Smith – Buffalo Bills
He was everything a Bills fan could ask for, and so much more.
Howie Long – Oakland Raiders
Before transforming into a bad actor and goofy TV personality, Long was a dominating defensive force. His speed couldn’t be stopped, which made for some exciting blocks on Special Teams.
Linebackers
Lawrence Taylor – New York Giants
Simply put, he’s the greatest defensive player NFL video game history!
Derrick Thomas – Kansas City Chiefs
Here’s another scenario where 1A comes in handy, because D.T. was an unstoppable monster in this game!
Mike Singletary – Chicago Bears
The Samurai wasn’t as mind-blowing as L.T. or D.T., but he was still a run-stuffing, QB-sacking, field goal blocking machine.
Defensive Backs
Deion Sanders – Atlanta Falcons
Much like in real life, Prime Time wasn’t to be messed with.
Ronnie Lott – San Francisco 49ers
Suffice to say offense isn’t the only reason they’re one of the best teams in the game.
David Fulcher – Cincinnati Bengals
This one was probably the most difficult selection to make, but Fulcher edges out the likes of Rod Woodson and Mark Carrier in my book. Simply put, he’s one of very few reasons to play with the Bengals.
Kickers
Pete Stoyanovich – Miami Dolphins
I know there’re a few guys out there you’d probably take before ol’ Pete, but he’s never failed me and that’s all you can ask for in a kicker.
Scott Norwood – Buffalo Bills
I know what you’re thinking…and I totally agree.
Well folks, that’s what I’m bringing to the virtual table, and it’s like I said, you can bring your All-Madden team, because they can’t touch the likes of my All-Time Tecmo Super Bowl squad.
OTHER TOP STORIES
--The Official Olympic Drinking Game
--Top 10 Most Important MLB Firsts
--#12 Preview - Wisconsin Badgers
--#13 Preview - Tennessee Volunteers
--#14 Preview - Kansas Jayhawks
--The Mouth of the South - Conference Predictions
--The Huddle: Why College FB Trumps the NFL
--Ten Reasons To Love Fantasy Football
--Top 15 Players In Uniforms They Shouldn’t Be Wearing
(If you love the NFL, then you’ll also love our sister site, The Love of Sports!)
I was always partial to Thurman Thomas!
Great list though.
this is bush! you obviously don’t know what you’re talking about if you don’t include wayne haddix from tampa bay...easily the best player in the game
This is one of the worst, one of the stupidest lists I have ever seen. Did you just randomly write down some names of players you happened to remember after a drinking binge?
First, I’m a Bears fan so this is hard to say, but the best dlineman in that game might be the NT from Green Bay, Bob Nelson… no name guy but is so quick and fast that you can usually tackle the QB before he hands off… he was THE only reason to play with the Packers.
The best defensive back in the game was Haddix from Tampa. He would lead the league EVERY year in interceptions. Marcus Allen and Barry Word were no slouches at RB’s either.
HA HA HA HA, Haddix was the man! He was unstoppable in the secondary. Seemed like you could get a pick with him any time you really wanted to. This is a pretty damn good list though. When Okoye got into a groove, you didn’t even have to try to outrun the defense, he just ran right THROUGH the defense! No question that Randall was the man at QB, although you sure took your chances with his chump receivers dropping the ball a ton. The best was playing the teams like the Vikes, who you could literally drop for a loss on every play, or force a fumble on their trick plays and take it to the house!
How bout Bob Nelson from the Packers? He was the greatest Defensive Lineman in Tecmo history.
yeah i would use my madden team 2 take on this team. i would kick this teams ass. i don’t see how they could win a game, let alone beat my team. this team doesn’t even feature an offensive line. i don’t care who u have at running back or who ur quarterback is, if u don’t have an offensive line 2 protect 4 them, u got nothin. u would constantly lose yards. come on, they picked kickers and excluded the line. kickers really aren’t that important in video games. as long as u have a decent kicker ur fine.
I couldn’t agree more with Haddix and Nelson...they’d definitely be next in line if I went 4-deep.
I didn’t include offensive lineman because you couldn’t control them, as opposed to modern games where some (albeit few) people actually enjoy controlling an O-Lineman.
And yes, kickers are important and under-appreciated too.
Awesome list! Tecmo Bowl was and is the best.
Oh hell ya! I was just playing a Tecmo Super Bowl Rom at work - I agree with the list, though it’s interesting how the Bills were so good and none of them made it. As far as teams go:
1. 49ers
2. NY Giants
3. Bills
4. Eagles
5. Oilers
As painful as it is I have to agree with the Bob Nelson picks. I’m a Vikes fan and it hurts to admit it, but Bob Nelson was unstoppable. I’ve racked up 100+ sack seasons with him and it didn’t matter how good Okoye and Jackson were because they couldn’t get the ball before Nelson took the QB down.
A couple of things ... first of all, you nailed it with Randall Cunningham. He is probably the most underrated video game football player of all time. He was truly amazing, I used to run for 175 and throw for 450 with him. And as is usually the case with Philly, he didn’t have great WRs.
I have a couple of issues ... the WR list has to include Sterling Sharpe. That guy went up for every pass and caught everthing. Also, you have to have a soft spot for Anthony Carter (MIN). He was great.
Hard to argue with the RBs. But I think Bo was significantly better than Okoye, mostly because Okoye was unbelievable only when the computer used him. I also think the computer made Bobby Humphrey incredible as well.
My biggest issue is with Defensive Backs ... No Joey Browner? That guy used to haunt me in my Tecmo Nightmares. He was almost as good as Lott in my book.
Still, great list. Brought back a lot of memories. Good work.
Prime Time was on the Falcons, not the 49ers.
Deion Sanders plays for Atlanta not San Fran in that game
Bob “The Usher” Nelson was the greatest video game athlete ever.
Deion was on the Falcons for sure.
Bo is significantly better than Okoye.
Darrell Green was great in the secondary.
These posts are very correct… Bob Nelson was THE best player in this the second installment of Tecmo. If you didn’t run out of the shotgun, he’d take out your quarterback before every handoff or sack him halfway into his dropback.
Okoye over Bo?? You are out of your mind...simple as that. I cant even say the rest of the list is solid because you totally discredited yourself with that pick.
DBs - Wayne Haddix (TB)
RBs - Thurman Thomas (BUF)
QBs - Tony Eason (NYJ) - unbelieveable skill
“Iron Head” Heyward was a force to be reckoned with coming out of the backfield. He may have been average in real life, but he was an above average god in Tecmo Bowl.
I can’t take this list seriously without bob nelson. not putting bob nelson on there really means that you didn’t do your homework. You can’t be better than him in that game - it’s impossible. He was literally a glitch that made the packers unstoppable. Making a list without him makes the whole list meaningless
I previously mentioned that I totally agree with the Bob Nelson addition, but to me he’s a very close fourth to the guys I mentioned and it’d be easy to substitute him with any of the three I mentioned.
That said...Okoye’s a LEGEND because of this game, so yeah, I’ll take him over Bo anytime (in this game of course)!
You either 1) didn`t play the game enough or 2) just simply forgot about the late Jerome Brown. One of the best defensive players in Tecmo history. Howie Long doesn`t deserve to be on this list (too slow). I had over 100 sacks with Jerome Brown during my season play.
I think Kevin Mack is missing too. That guy was made of rubber in the game. DBs just bounced off of him in the open field.
Anyone who has ever played any video game knows Bo Jackson is the greatest video game player of all-time. http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/030821
what the hell?
Here is mine:
QB: Cunningham
RB: Barry, then Thurman Thomas
WR: Jerry Rice, Sterling sharpe, and Andre Reed
TE: Keith Jackson
OL: Cowboys
DE: Smith, Long
DT: Cortez Kennedy, John Randle
OLB: Taylor and Pat Swilling
MLB: Hardy Nickerson
CB: Deon Sanders, Eric Allen
SS: Mark Kelso, Ronnie Lott
K: Morten Anderson
Not a bad list, GL. One big oversight was Rodney Holman at tight end. Boomer, Brooks, and Brown are other good reasons to play with Cincinnati, one of the top teams against humans.
All I can say is How do you leave Jerry Ball (center dive play) and Darrell Green of the list. L.T. is the best tecmo player in the game because he is the only one who can offset bobby eagles, And to not put Bo Jackson as number 1 running back is pure stupidity. Anybody who knows the game knows that Okoye isn’t shit if is health status is average or lower. Jackson is the best offensive threat especially when average health or above, if he is rated excellent not even L.T. can stop him.
Also for DB: Richard Johnson of the Oilers (CB at top of screen). I have no idea whoe he was in real life, but he picked off everything in the game.
Just talking Tecmo Super bowl, Ironhead Hayword should be in the top ten RB.
Post a comment