Ah, Tecmo Superbowl. In my latest engagement with it I decided to limit myself by playing through a season without ever using a ’save and reload’ in order to avoid an unfortunate fate. To play the game ‘live’, in a sense. The main reason for this was to resolve my addiction by making it possible for the season to end without getting to the play-offs etc., without the possibility of just trying again. And again.

But, thanks to my tireless devotion to mastering the art of Tecmo, I actually managed to steer the Cowboys to a Superbowl win over the Tennessee Titans. I went through a number of defensive and offensive strategies throughout the season, honed my ball-pursuit skills, and juggled my roster mercilessly. I was the coach (and god) the team needed to push it over the top.

I won the Superbowl while sitting on a train going between Dhaka and Chittagong. It would not be an understatement to say that it was a surreal experience. It would also not be an understatement to say that I was exceedingly elated by winning this pixelated, low-fi, ancient game. Go Cowboys!

The Dallas Cowboys lost their Divisional playoff game last Sunday, which was a very painful experience for me. I don’t like it when they lose in general, and losing a playoff game is far, far worse. I was pleased to find the despair tempered in a couple of ways, though.

First of all, because the Cowboys hadn’t actually won a playoff game since 1996, the fact they had won their previous playoff game (a Wildcard game against the Philadelphia Eagles) still felt like a huge accomplishment for them, at least historically. 13 years is a long time to wait for a playoff win. I was actually quite shocked I’d been tracking them for such a long time without that gratification.

Second, it was actually very helpful that I was watching the game with Phil, who was staying with us at the time. There’s definitely something about watching the game with someone else, particularly someone I don’t know too well, that means I can’t really spiral off into utter despair.

All in all, it really sucks that they lost and that I have to wait such a long time for the new season, but I’m less broken up about it than I’d expected to be.

Watching your team squander a pretty decent opening half is agonising enough. Doing so while sitting in the midnight darkness at a Danish modernist dining table is somehow much, much worse. Part of me wants to superstitiously wear my Cowboys helmet. Part of me is afraid of just how low I would have sunk if I did that.

And then the other part of me says: how do you know that wearing the helmet won’t help them win the game? Do you know it won’t? What about that time you were sure they used to always lose if you didn’t watch the game? What about that time you muttered feverishly under your breath about them getting a first down and they got a first down? What about the time you wrote that you would sacrifice a goat if they won the game, then said you wouldn’t because it’s just the wrong thing to do, and then they lost…

What about all that, Mr. Rationality?