January 26, 2008

Airing of Grievances: Seattle's Pink Tecmo Bowl Uniforms


Back in '89, I was elated that Seattle would be one of the teams included in the NES football game Tecmo Bowl. They only included 12 teams, so it was sort of an honor to be part of the game. While they weren't OFFICIALLY NFL teams, they had all the great players of the day, and the team unis look suspiciously like the NFL clubs from that city.

Except for Seattle. Dave Krieg, Curt Warner and Steve Largent were there.. IN PINK UNIFORMS. Check out Bo Jackson pwning the Pinkhawks in this youtube clip:



You know how online gaming has pretty much been ruined by 14 year olds who throw around every homophobic slur imaginable (Back in my Halo 2 days, I'd usually reply with some variation of "how'd you know??? I LOVE guys!" That usually freaked them out so deeply they'd just log off)? I was 14 in 1989, and when I wasn't wearing out my VHS tapes of The Untouchables and Full Metal Jacket, I was terrified of anyone thinking I was... GAY! Horror!

Thus, I was in a deep bucket of syrup. I wasn't going to play as a team other than Seattle, but I was horrified by those pink unis. What had the Seahawks done to deserve this? What had I done? Somehow I soldiered on, but even as a young Hawks fan, it was a reminder of the utter lack of respeck my team recieved.

The game was somewhat redeemed by giving me one of my greatest video game victories ever. A friend of mine was playing as the Bears, and Walter Payton was almost as unstoppable as Bo Jackson. I was up 28-24 late, and since it was Tecmo Bowl, it made sense to hand it to Sweetness 80 yards away from the goal line on the game's final play.

I had a perfect angle as Kenny Easley, and as time expired made a diving, Mike Jones-worthy tackle at the Seattle 1 to preserve a pixelated Super Bowl victory.

Even with that triumph, those pink unis haunt my memories of 1989.. Along with the trailer trash girlfriend who gave me head lice... Yipes.

PS: Here's the rosters for the original Tecmo Bowl. The Seattle Pinkhawks roster is below:

QB DAVE KRIEG
RB CURT WARNER
WR STEVE LARGENT
WR DARYL TURNER
TE J. WILLIAMS
RG BRYAN MILLARD
C BLAIR BUSH
LG EDWIN BAILEY
LT RON MATTES
KR B. J. EDMONDS
K NORM JOHNSON
P R. RODRIGUEZ
RE JEFF BRYANT
NT JOE NASH
LE JACOB GREEN
LB TONY WOODS
LB FREDD YOUNG
LB BRIAN BOSWORTH
LB GREG GAINES
SS KENNY EASLEY
CB E. ROBINSON

Not a bad squad, huh?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

God I loved that game! Hats off pal good pick! GO HAWKS!

Anonymous said...

Awesome write up.

Tecmo's 1st flaw was the color schemes. For some reason the helmet and pants had to share a color according to the game's computer codes/data. Raiders had silver helmet & pants....Giants had blue helmet & pants. You will notice that every team had a seperate colored jersey than the pants/helmet combo.

The Seahawks obviously got last pick of colors behind the grey of Dallas and the blue of the Colts. Tough break.

My buddies and I still to this day roll through 100+ games of Tecmo a year. Please check out my massive labor of love... http://www.tecmobowl-vs-rbi.com/index.html Got a ton of indepth write ups and a huge strategy guide.