Elway comeback imminent

Much to my chagrin, the Denver Broncos are not done with OTAs. Life will be better when we dispense with this fake football.

So today we’re going to talk about something real: video game football.

First off, I’m not a video game guy. I don’t have an XBox or Playstation. I’ve played Madden, and I’m bad ass at Tiger Woods, and I have nothing against gaming or the guys that devote hours to their joystick skills. It’s just not my thing.

I am, however, monumentally fired up about the new title from 2KSports, All-Pro Football 2K8. The premise is tremendous, as they’ve constructed a game using former players, digitally recreated in their primes. EA Sports has an exclusive arrangement with the NFL and NFLPA, so that Madden is the only game legally allowed to use NFL teams and player likenesses. All-Pro Football brilliantly sidesteps this monopoly.

On the cover of the game box are Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice (who never played for the Broncos, understand?) and the Main Man. Pretty impressive bunch. It got me to thinking that Elway is certainly the best QB of the video game era. Now I’m not saying that he’s the best video game QB ever…like I said, I’m not a gaming guy and I would have no idea how good the ’95 Madden Elway compares to the ’03 Madden Ron Mexico, for instance. But since Tecmo Bowl came out, no one has played the position better.

The chance to play with Elway, Sanders and Rice (not to mention Bosworth, OJ, Sweetness, Montana, Dave Meggett, The Nigerian Nightmare, Lester Hayes and Jan Freaking Stenerud) might make me actually go out and get that XBox.