Tecmo Super Bowl was essentially an honorable mention for my list. Such a classic game!
The original Tecmo Bowl was such an innovation in the way football games were made. Being able to choose plays was cool and you got to play with your favorites players because the names were in it. Also players had varying abilities based on their real life statistics. Super Tecmo Bowl took it a step further increasing the number of plays from 4 to 8 and it kept really detailed season statistics for each player, which my friends and I loved and competed against each other in different categories. Way ahead of it's time for sure.