Video games can actually help you prep for a GM job

	Wanna feel like a football genius a la Bill Belichick? Just master Tecmo Bowl. Brian Bahr/Getty Images

I was in sixth grade. Sitting on the floor of my buddy's living room, I hungrily clasped my rectangular controller. The intro music to Tecmo Super Bowl kicked on, and all I could think was, "Please pick the Giants again."

Despite having a fairly loaded roster, the Giants were pretty easy to beat, even if you were the Bears. The Giants' default playbook included two motion plays -- a run and a play-action pass -- and a draw play that was easier to read than the Cliffs Notes to the dozen or so books I never read in high school or college but still wrote decent papers on. For those unfamiliar with Tecmo Bowl's defensive "nuances," selecting the same play as the offense neutralizes it. So all you did against New York was pick the motion run every time; if a receiver went in motion, you picked the outside linebacker near the top of the screen and went after the QB, and you'd crush him if he bootlegged. By combining that knowledge with observing whether Dave Meggett stayed in the backfield (draw play) or didn't (pass play), you could effectively eliminate half of the team's eight plays.

"How'd you know that was the draw play?" my friend said, looking discouraged. "Did you look at my controller?"

I shook my head and did my best to not smile.

I felt the way Bill Belichick must feel ... when he beats his friends at Tecmo Bowl.

The reason I bring this up is because more and more football coaches are using video games to train their players. It's not an entirely original concept, but while reading a recent article about how Penn State coach Joe Paterno gives his players playbooks on PlayStation memory cards so they can do reps on Madden, I thought, "Let's take this one step further. I should train to be a general manager. Wait. Haven't I already?"