Bo Jackson is easily the greatest video game athlete of all time (2024)

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With sports being out of the picture right now we’re all looking for ways to distract ourselves from the serious news that seems to get worse and worse each day.

We can still do that with sports, which we’re doing every day at For The Win. All of my awesome colleagues are finding creative ways to create some pretty darn fun sports content even though sports aren’t happening… and they’re really good at it.

We’re also putting out some good content to help you find something to watch to get you through these days and nights because we’re here for you and we’re just like you, spending our nights finding the best movies on Netflix, or the best food shows on Netflix, or what’s on Amazon Prime, or on Hulu. We got it all covered.

On Thursday, my pal Mike Sykes listed the 33 best video game athletes to ever play in a… video game.

This list is a really fun trip down memory lane and it’s kicked off by Bo Jackson from the original Tecmo Bowl for the original Nintendo. While this list isn’t a ranking, it might as well be because Bo is the greatest video game athlete of all time.

And it’s not even close.

If you’re old like me chances are you spent hours playing Tecmo against either your friends or the “computer” and you know the Raiders were often the team you picked to play. Why? Because of Bo Jackson.

If you’ve never played Tecmo, let me explain why Bo was so good.

First of all, Tecmo was a simple game that gave you only four offensive plays to choose from. Most teams had two run plays and two pass plays. That was it. The defense had the same four offensive plays to choose from and if the defense picked the same play as the offense (which wasn’t hard to do!) the play would normally go for a loss of yards. It could also lead to fist fights and damning accusations of your friend cheating by peeking at your controller, which only added to the intensity of the game.

You had to be careful when you picked the Bo play, but it was also fun when the defense picked the Bo play because that’s when you saw how great Bo could be, as he’d often break free for some positive yards.

But if you picked the Bo play and the defense didn’t then chances are you were running Bo all over the field while taking it to the house. It didn’t matter if you were 99 yards from the end zone or 2 yards from the end zone – Bo was going to score. If you’ve never felt the joy of zig-zagging Bo through a defense before breaking free for a long TD then you haven’t lived!

Sometimes against the computer I’d pick the Raiders and down the ball at the 1-yard line on purpose just so I could see if I could break a 99-yarder with Bo. It was like a sweet drug that every kid who grew up with a Ninentedo in their room knows all to well. Chances are if that was you and you’re reading this right now you’re trying to think of a way you can play this game again just so you can break off a classic Bo run.

He. Was. So. Good.

The second best player on Tecmo, meanwhile, was Lawrence Taylor. The former Giants LB could fly around the field and he could block ever field goal and extra point ever taken. Like, he wouldn’t get one every now and then, he’d block EVERY SINGLE FIELD GOAL. So if you were playing the Giants you had to take that into account when scoring points and trying to win a game – because all kicks were out of play.

But yeah, this game was all about Vincent Bo Jackson. He was a legend in the NFL, in MLB, and Tecmo Bowl and now I need to find a way to break off a long TD run.

Quick hits: Brady’s sweet new pad… Stephen A.’s stay at home message… Best video games to play… And more!

– Tom Brady moved into a nice house in Tampa… a mansion that used to belong to Derek Jeter.

– Stephen A. Smith shared a great social distancing message.

– Here are the 28 best single-player video games to play while staying at home.

– Olympic swimmer Ryan Murphy told our Michelle Martinelli how he’s creatively training during COVID-19 outbreak.

– Tom Holland’s quarantine social media challenge looks incredibly hard.

– The hottest new thing in quarantine life is hosting a Netflix Party.