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Why Was Jim Kelly “QB Bills” in Tecmo Super Bowl?


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One of my early football memories was playing Tecmo Super Bowl on my NES.  As a Bills fan I always wondered why Jim Kelly was QB Bills.

 

I later looked it up and apparently he was not listed because Kelly was not a member of the NFLPA at the time the deal with Tecmo was made.  The same situation with Bernie “QB Browns” Kosar and Randall “QB Eagles” Cunningham.

 

Also I remember a few year later that all the big QB’s in the league (including Kelly, Kosar and Cunningham) we’re trying to start their own brand The QB Club and sold merch like hats, t-shirts, and a few kind of crappy video games. 

 

My question is was the deal with Kelly and he NFLPA?  Why was he not a member in 1991 and was the attempt to start the QB Club a way to get merchandising without having the NFLPA (and maybe the NFL) taking their cut?  

 

I was not following NFL closely at this time so if you could let me know it would be great!

Edited by Phil The Thrill
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Three high-profile quarterbacks weren’t members of the NFLPA when TSB was being made, so they couldn’t be included in the game; however, Tecmo knew of their real-life ability and fan popularity, so they cleverly came up with a way to include them anyway. Randall Cunningham is listed as QB Eagles, Jim Kelly is listed as QB Bills, and Bernie Kosar is listed as QB Browns. 

 

Interestingly, Kosar appears in Tecmo Bowl, but not TSB. Also, Eric Dickerson is in Tecmo Bowl listed with the truncated name “Dicker,” but when TSB was being made he had a gripe with the NFLPA about not getting enough cash for his likeness, so he’s not in TSB. It is unknown why Tecmo didn’t apply a generic name such as RB Colts for Dickerson, like they did with the above trio of QBs. Hilariously, according to dictionary.com, “dicker” means “to deal, swap, or trade with petty bargaining.”

Side note:  The number of star-studded clubs with which you could pile up points made it difficult to choose just one. TSB project manager Hidehisa Yamaguchi, who also worked as a programmer on Tecmo Bowl, said via email that the best all-around squad was a certain perennial Super Bowl runner-up. Don Beebe, a speedy receiver on those loaded Bills teams of the ’90s, told me that when his brothers squared off in Tecmo Super Bowl, they bickered over who’d get to pick Buffalo.

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11 minutes ago, Bills Oil Company said:

Three high-profile quarterbacks weren’t members of the NFLPA when TSB was being made, so they couldn’t be included in the game; however, Tecmo knew of their real-life ability and fan popularity, so they cleverly came up with a way to include them anyway. Randall Cunningham is listed as QB Eagles, Jim Kelly is listed as QB Bills, and Bernie Kosar is listed as QB Browns. 

 

Interestingly, Kosar appears in Tecmo Bowl, but not TSB. Also, Eric Dickerson is in Tecmo Bowl listed with the truncated name “Dicker,” but when TSB was being made he had a gripe with the NFLPA about not getting enough cash for his likeness, so he’s not in TSB. It is unknown why Tecmo didn’t apply a generic name such as RB Colts for Dickerson, like they did with the above trio of QBs. Hilariously, according to dictionary.com, “dicker” means “to deal, swap, or trade with petty bargaining.”

Side note:  The number of star-studded clubs with which you could pile up points made it difficult to choose just one. TSB project manager Hidehisa Yamaguchi, who also worked as a programmer on Tecmo Bowl, said via email that the best all-around squad was a certain perennial Super Bowl runner-up. Don Beebe, a speedy receiver on those loaded Bills teams of the ’90s, told me that when his brothers squared off in Tecmo Super Bowl, they bickered over who’d get to pick Buffalo.

 

Interesting about Dickerson I never noticed that he isn’t in TSB but he is in STB on snes

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The 49ers were by far the best team they had Montana, Rice, Taylor, Craig, And on defense they had Ronnie Lott. Lott was what we called the “touch tackle defense”. Most times playing the game, when tackling you got locked up with a defender and whoever lashed the buttons the fastest won the battle. Lott was a super cheat. All you had to do was touch the player and they were instantly tackled. 

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7 minutes ago, Teddy KGB said:

QB Eagles was good too 

Could pick the exact pass play that was going to be ran and he was the only qb that could STILL outrun the rush. You just needed enough field behind you to drop back and avoid the initial onslaught. 

 

I have a cleaned up functioning NES and that game and to this day if I have a couple of old buddies over we fire it up and there’s one buddy in particular that we won’t let use the Eagles because he was so good with Randall. 

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1 hour ago, Bills Oil Company said:

Three high-profile quarterbacks weren’t members of the NFLPA when TSB was being made, so they couldn’t be included in the game; however, Tecmo knew of their real-life ability and fan popularity, so they cleverly came up with a way to include them anyway. Randall Cunningham is listed as QB Eagles, Jim Kelly is listed as QB Bills, and Bernie Kosar is listed as QB Browns. 

 

Interestingly, Kosar appears in Tecmo Bowl, but not TSB. Also, Eric Dickerson is in Tecmo Bowl listed with the truncated name “Dicker,” but when TSB was being made he had a gripe with the NFLPA about not getting enough cash for his likeness, so he’s not in TSB. It is unknown why Tecmo didn’t apply a generic name such as RB Colts for Dickerson, like they did with the above trio of QBs. Hilariously, according to dictionary.com, “dicker” means “to deal, swap, or trade with petty bargaining.”

Side note:  The number of star-studded clubs with which you could pile up points made it difficult to choose just one. TSB project manager Hidehisa Yamaguchi, who also worked as a programmer on Tecmo Bowl, said via email that the best all-around squad was a certain perennial Super Bowl runner-up. Don Beebe, a speedy receiver on those loaded Bills teams of the ’90s, told me that when his brothers squared off in Tecmo Super Bowl, they bickered over who’d get to pick Buffalo.

 

Very cool but why were they not members of the NFLPA?

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11 minutes ago, Phil The Thrill said:

 

Very cool but why were they not members of the NFLPA?

 

I'd say they were supporting players who were getting suspensions for unnecessarily hurting other players except back then they did not do it so much. 

 

Only happened after Troy Vincent joined NFLPA as officer which is interesting since the supposed "freak accident" Losman had was after Vincent reportedly told the rookie QB he was "uppity".    He talked against spending money protecting players outside of football games like T*m "I like soft balls" Br*dy.

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A bunch of QB’s -Kelly, Marino, Elway, Moon, Aikman, etc. formed the group for a specific video game where they received royalties. I don’t recall that they had to leave the NFLPA to do it, though they may have had to.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_Quarterback_Club

 

IIRC, they marketed other things to, like figurines.

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10 hours ago, Phil The Thrill said:

Also I remember a few year later that all the big QB’s in the league (including Kelly, Kosar and Cunningham) we’re trying to start their own brand The QB Club and sold merch like hats, t-shirts, and a few kind of crappy video games

 

 

Tecmo Bowl was epic, but those 16 and 64 bit QB Club games were great, too! 

 

There's a newer version of Tecmo on XBOX Live called Tecmo Bowl Throwback (I was actually playing just yesterday). It looks like a remake of the Super Tecmo Bowl version, but there's a feature that allows you to switch to modern graphics whenever you want, including mid-play. You can also play head to head online. Unfortunately the Madden franchise has had exclusive rights for years, so there hasn't been a game with player likeness since probably the 2K series. Buffalo kind of sucks on this game, and their logo is a feather, but still a fun game.

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11 hours ago, Bills Oil Company said:

Three high-profile quarterbacks weren’t members of the NFLPA when TSB was being made, so they couldn’t be included in the game; however, Tecmo knew of their real-life ability and fan popularity, so they cleverly came up with a way to include them anyway. Randall Cunningham is listed as QB Eagles, Jim Kelly is listed as QB Bills, and Bernie Kosar is listed as QB Browns. 

 

Interestingly, Kosar appears in Tecmo Bowl, but not TSB. Also, Eric Dickerson is in Tecmo Bowl listed with the truncated name “Dicker,” but when TSB was being made he had a gripe with the NFLPA about not getting enough cash for his likeness, so he’s not in TSB. It is unknown why Tecmo didn’t apply a generic name such as RB Colts for Dickerson, like they did with the above trio of QBs. Hilariously, according to dictionary.com, “dicker” means “to deal, swap, or trade with petty bargaining.”

Side note:  The number of star-studded clubs with which you could pile up points made it difficult to choose just one. TSB project manager Hidehisa Yamaguchi, who also worked as a programmer on Tecmo Bowl, said via email that the best all-around squad was a certain perennial Super Bowl runner-up. Don Beebe, a speedy receiver on those loaded Bills teams of the ’90s, told me that when his brothers squared off in Tecmo Super Bowl, they bickered over who’d get to pick Buffalo.

It would be nice if you referenced the source you took this from.

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11 hours ago, mrags said:

The 49ers were by far the best team they had Montana, Rice, Taylor, Craig, And on defense they had Ronnie Lott. Lott was what we called the “touch tackle defense”. Most times playing the game, when tackling you got locked up with a defender and whoever lashed the buttons the fastest won the battle. Lott was a super cheat. All you had to do was touch the player and they were instantly tackled. 

 

Raiders with Bo. Sweep play, then zig-zag your way down the field. TD every time. Absolutely unstoppable.

 

 

Edited by DrDawkinstein
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