One of my favorite board games of my childhood was NFL Strategy from Tudor Games. It claimed to be The Ultimate Game of Football and it was certainly the best I had ever played. I owned the Model 1000, which I think came out in 1979. It was pure strategy, like a football version of chess. The teams were identically matched with no differences between teams or individual players. You had the same resources at your disposal as your opponent—40 offensive plays and 12 defensive plays. The coach on offense selected a play card from three categories: blue for runs, red for passes, or purple for screens, draws and play-action passes. The opposing coach selected a defense card, which was a partially transparent overlay. You placed the defensive card over the offensive card and slid it into the slot. Five windows of potential outcomes were exposed. The result was randomly determined by pulling the selector bead back against a spring. Where it landed indicated the play's result based on the starting hashmark.

I only ever had one opponent for NFL Strategy—my friend Mike. I was a St. Louis Cardinals fan and he was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. We played as if we were coaching those teams. I tallied game stats with pencil and paper, attributing them to players on our NFL teams. Before long, Mike became a Washington Redskins fan; he played the rest of our games as the Redskins' coach. Based on the playbook and the stats, you can see this was 1970s football. There was a lot more rushing compared to today's NFL. All passing was from under center; there was only one play with a shotgun formation.

Overall, I did pretty well. My Cardinals were 4-2 against the Steelers and 14-9 against the Redskins. Our final game went unfinished but I was leading after three quarters so I'm counting that as a win. That's an 18-11 (.621) career coaching record. That doesn't put me in the company of John Madden (.759), Vince Lombardi (.738), and George Allen (.712). However, it is comparable to Bill Cowher (.623), Joe Gibbs (.621), and Bud Grant (.621). It even edges Bill Walsh (.609) and Tom Landry (.607).

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Home team is in CAPS

1. CARDINALS 21, Steelers 17
2. Cardinals 24, Steelers 10
3. Steelers 24, CARDINALS 21
4. STEELERS 14, Cardinals 10
5. CARDINALS 23, Steelers 10
6. Cardinals 36, STEELERS 21

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Washington Redskins
Home team is in CAPS

1. Cardinals 13, REDSKINS 3
2. CARDINALS 30, Redskins 7
3. REDSKINS 12, Cardinals 0
4. Redskins 17, CARDINALS 7
5. Cardinals 20, REDSKINS 7
6. CARDINALS 19, Redskins 14
7. Cardinals 20, REDSKINS 10
8. CARDINALS 24, Redskins17
9. REDSKINS 21, Cardinals 17
10. Redskins 14, CARDINALS 10
11. Cardinals 37, REDSKINS 21
12. Redskins 14, CARDINALS 10
13. REDSKINS 14, Cardinals 10
14. CARDINALS 14, Redskins 0
15. Cardinals 24, REDSKINS 5
16. CARDINALS 17, Redskins 7
17. REDSKINS 16, Cardinals 14
18. CARDINALS 28, Redskins 17
19. REDSKINS 28, Cardinals 20
20. CARDINALS 28, Redskins 16
21. REDSKINS 20, Cardinals 16
22. CARDINALS 23, Redskins 17 (OT)
23. CARDINALS 13, Redskins 10 (unfinished)