From the sidelines

I love sports video games but I am not a joystick jockey. Instead, I love the behind-the-scenes, sport simulation games. And with EA's release of "NFL Head Coach," the sport sim community has entered a new generation of gaming.\nOnce upon a time, there were only baseball games like "Strat-o-Matic" and "Diamond Mind," but then the "Football Manager" series (formerly known as "Championship Manager"), "Front Office Football" and "Eastside Hockey Manager" brought more games to the stats geeks. The only problem was that other than watching dots play soccer, none of these games were graphically appealing. But "NFL Head Coach" is on the verge of changing that.\n"Head Coach" looks good and is fun, and that meets the needs of so many gamers. But for the diehards, it is the realistic stats and the AI that matters most. \nThere is career mode for those interested in taking over an NFL team, making lineup changes, selecting draft picks and motivating players in hopes of coaching them towards the Vince Lombardi trophy. You call the plays and can change strategy by talking to individual players or groups of players during the game. But once the ball is snapped you can only sit back, watch the Madden-like graphics, and hope that the plays you practiced all week long work well. Those long (and at times tedious) hours spent looking at depth charts and doing all those things that real coaches do can really pay off if you scout your opponents well, play to your own strengths and exploit the opponents weaknesses.\nThere is online play for those who want the chance to match wits against football coaches from around the world, which is very appealing to gamers who think they could lead the Browns to the Super Bowl if only Mr. Lerner would give them the job. \nThe game is off to a good start but it is obvious that this is the first version of the game. The interface is weak, the AI is questionable at times and it takes quite a long time to get to the meat of the game (the first draft, the first preseason game, etc.) and straight out of the box, there seem to be far too many interceptions.\nBut there is good news for PC gamers. Even though the game has only been out for a week, there are already mods available to fix some of the problems that exist in the game. And that gives hope to those gamers who want to prove that they know more than Tom Landry.