Story nine: betting $10k on a game of Tecmo Super Bowl
I honestly forgot about it until my buddies and I were talking about it yesterday.
Roughly from the age of like 9 to the age of 20, I played a lot of Tecmo Super Bowl. I would the play solo season mode and win without any trouble. I’d purposely pick the worst teams or put in back ups to challenge myself but overall was still winning. I could beat my friends fairly easily and in general, thought I was a really good player.
In college I still played occasionally, but not as often. Instead I traded my love of video game consoles for my love of gaming PCs, poker, and my girlfriend (now wife). But one night, I was playing poker with some new friends, and got onto the topic of Tecmo Super Bowl, and one of my new college buddies, Tom, says we should play…he wasn’t overly cocky or rude, but pretty confident, and me being a young male and exuding ego felt like it would be fun to put a little wager on the game.
I honestly don’t remember how much we bet. It was like $20 or something.
I don’t think I had ever lost as badly at anything in my life as I just lost this game.
Not only did I not score, I don’t think I even got to Tom’s side of the field. He was playing the game on such an incomprehensible level that I was just awestruck. He knew what plays I picked by the way my offense lined up. He knew which defenders to pick based on speed or what would most disrupt the play. It was embarrassing to feel so incredibly powerless playing a game I considered myself very good at.
It was a great lesson in false confidence and humility. And a phenomenal lesson in breaking glass ceilings of thinking/working/playing to get to higher levels that were previously inconceivable.
Fast forward about 5 years and I’m playing poker in some private games, chatting with these guys about various things, when the topic of Tecmo Super Bowl comes up. One guy at the table, Brian, who is a well known BSer, makes some comment about how he’s so good at the game and won some tournaments in high school or whatever. I think to myself, “this dude is so full of sh!t, I bet he ain’t seen anything like my other buddy”….
I gently say “oh, you’re really good, eh? My other buddy is really good too, we should get a game between you two and make some bets on the game!”
Brian starts back peddling a little, saying things like how he hasn’t played in a while, and I think I’ve lost him, when he says, “but yeah, I’d play him and I’ll bet whatever”….
Almost out of jest and before my brain could process what I was saying, I blurt out, “I’d bet like $10k my buddy would win” and just like that, it was booked. I still was sure Tom would win, so there was no problem…I mean, if I was so good at the game and lost, maybe my new buddy Brian lived in the same little delusional world that I once lived in before he met TOM THE TECMO SUPER BOWL TITAN!!
I won’t waste more of your time with build up. I called up Tom, now living in Cinci, we picked a time and place, and got the game going before one of our card games up here in Cleveland. The contenders picked their teams, picked their playbooks, and we just did a one game match that had several side bets riding on it, as well as my $10k wager with Brian.
From the first drive, it looked like this was going to be a battle. Two masters engaged in a battle on the digital, pixelated field.
But before by the end of the first quarter, it was evident that Brian was outplaying Tom. And as the second quarter went on, Brian was somehow getting better. Both these guys were playing on a level that I couldn’t conceive of. And they were sharing notes and discussing strategy mid-game with all the respect and joy of two phenoms of the craft. It was really a fun, awesome experience……
except I was losing $10k.
I don’t think Tom scored a touchdown in the second half. It was brutal. Tom felt horrible that he lost $10k for me, but I told him it was my fault. I’m the idiot who made the bet, I’m the one who put my money where my mouth was, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
I handled the loss with grace, but inside I was upset with myself and could only laugh. For the second time in a few years, this game taught me hugely valuable lessons and am incredibly grateful for it.
I just wish I had bet like $2k lol
