1996 NFL Season Added to SOM’s Summer Lineup

 1996 NFL Added to SOM’s Summer Lineup

 
By Glenn Guzzo
 
The incredible 1996 National Football League season has been added to the list of Strat-O-Matic’s forthcoming classic seasons, joining the 1970 NFL and 1984 United States Football League offerings.
           
The ’96 season rocks with Green Bay QB Brett Favre throwing 39 touchdown passes and his Packers winning the Super Bowl for the first time since Vince Lombardi coached the team in 1967.
           
Green Bay led the NFL in scoring (456 points) and scoring defense (210 points) in a dominant show that included a decisive Super Bowl victory over New England, which had QB Drew Bledsoe, RB Curtis Martin (1,100 rush yards) and the AFC’s top offense (418 points).
           
This season is also noteworthy for the extraordinary success of second-year teams Carolina (12-4) and Jacksonville (9-7), who both reached their conference finals. Carolina relied on a defense nearly as good as Green Bay’s, while ex-Packer QB Mark Brunell led all AFC passers for Jacksonville.
           
Carolina will be one of the six carded teams, while Jacksonville will join the rest in the computer version.
           
Other carded teams include Denver, the best team in the AFC at 13-3 until Jacksonville upset it in the playoffs. QB John Elway and the AFC’s top running back, Terrell Davis (1,500 yards rushing) made the Broncos very tough to tame.
           
San Francisco QB Steve Young, who was so proficient he, not Favre, led the NFC in passing, guided the 49ers to a 12-4 mark and into SOM’s carded lineup. Finally, 10-6 Pittsburgh, with 1,400-yard runner Jerome Bettis completes the carded six-pack.
           
The attractive group of players and teams available only for Version 11 of the computer football game includes the NFL’s leading rusher, dynamic Barry Sanders of Detroit (1,553 yards).