Backyard Football (video game)
First Backyard Sports game with NFL teams and real players.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
Backyard Football is an American football video game made by Humongous Entertainment. It came out on October 28, 1999, as the third game in the Backyard Sports series and the first in the Backyard Football line. It was the first Backyard Sports game to feature real NFL teams and real professional players drawn as kids, a move that later games in the franchise would copy. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac on a hybrid CD-ROM. The cover shows Steve Young as a cartoon kid. Several sequels followed.
The game uses five-on-five play, designed to be simple for children. It has three modes: Single Game, Season Play, and Online Play. The home screen also shows Hall of Fame records and player cards. In Single Game, players pick from five fields, change weather, and face the computer or another person. There are 30 original "Backyard Kids," plus eight NFL players as kids: Jerry Rice, Randall Cunningham, Brett Favre, Barry Sanders, John Elway, Dan Marino, Steve Young, and Drew Bledsoe. Players can also create a custom player. The 1999 version lets you choose NFL teams from that season. Sunny Day provides play-by-play commentary, with Chuck Downfield as the color commentator. The game includes many offensive and defensive plays, plus a few power-up plays.
In Season Play, you draft a seven-player team using NFL or custom branding in the "Backyard Football League," a 16-team, four-division league based on the NFL. Winning your division or earning a wild card spot gets you into the playoffs, where you can win the "Super Colossal Cereal Bowl," a spoof of the Super Bowl. You can track and print season standings, player stats, and league leaders. Between games, you can practice against a robot team called the Tackling Dummies. Online Play, available only on Windows, let players connect to the Junior Sports Network website to play others worldwide. It had different difficulty levels and rulesets. This feature also appeared in Backyard Baseball 2001. When Infogrames bought Humongous Entertainment in 2002, the servers shut down due to low use.
At the 1999 E3 event, Humongous announced license deals with the NFL, MLB, and MLS. Backyard Football was the first Backyard Sports game to include child versions of real pro players. To promote it, the company ran a marketing campaign with a commercial starring Jerry Rice and a sweepstakes for Super Bowl XXXIV.
The NFL
- Developer
- Humongous Entertainment
- Publisher
- Humongous Entertainment
- Release Date
- October 28, 1999
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows, Mac (hybrid CD-ROM)
- Genre
- American football video game
- Notable Feature
- First Backyard Sports game with NFL license and real players
Lore & Background
Backyard Football features five-on-five gameplay designed for children, with three modes: Single Game, Season Play, and Online Play. In Single Game, players choose from five fields, adjust weather, and play against AI or another player. The game includes 30 'Backyard Kids' and eight young versions of NFL players: Jerry Rice, Randall Cunningham, Brett Favre, Barry Sanders, John Elway, Dan Marino, Steve Young, and Drew Bledsoe. Players can also create a custom player. The 1999 version allowed selection of NFL teams from the 1999 season. Commentary is provided by Sunny Day and fictional color commentator Chuck Downfield. Season Play involves drafting a 7-player team in the 'Backyard Football League', a 16-team league based on the NFL, with playoffs culminating in the 'Super Colossal Cereal Bowl'. Online Play, available only on Windows, connected players via the Junior Sports Network until servers were shut down after Humongous Entertainment was acquired by Infogrames in 2002.
Reader's Guide
Backyard Football is significant as the first Backyard Sports title to secure a license from a major professional sports league, the National Football League, and to include child versions of real NFL players. This innovation set a precedent for later games in the franchise, such as Backyard Baseball 2001 and Backyard Soccer MLS Edition. The game received positive reviews for its accessible gameplay and replay value, though critics noted the limited number of professional players and the Windows-only online mode. Its legacy includes spawning a series of sequels starting with Backyard Football 2002. In 2025, a remaster titled Backyard Football '99 was released by Playground Productions, removing NFL branding due to licensing issues and replacing Brett Favre with a new character, Chase Downfield. The remaster also removed online play, though it can be restored on Windows via an INI file edit.
Did You Know?
- Backyard Football was the first Backyard Sports game to include teams from a major league and real-life sports players.
- Steve Young appears on the game's cover, redrawn as a kid.
- The remaster Backyard Football '99 replaced Brett Favre with Chase Downfield, the younger brother of fictional commentator Chuck Downfield.
- A fan-made patch released in 2021 relaunched online play for the original game via ScummVM.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Backyard Football (video game)?
It is an American football video game developed and published by Humongous Entertainment, launched on October 28, 1999. It serves as the third installment in the Backyard Sports series and the very first title in the dedicated Backyard Football sub-franchise.
What makes Backyard Football different from other sports games of its era?
It was the first Backyard Sports game to carry an official NFL license, letting real professional players appear on the field as cartoon kids. That licensing model became the blueprint every later entry in the franchise copied.
How does gameplay work in Backyard Football?
The game uses a simplified five-on-five format specifically designed to be easy for children to pick up. It strips away the complexity of full eleven-man football to keep the experience fun and manageable for a younger audience.
What platforms was Backyard Football released on?
It shipped as a single hybrid CD-ROM compatible with both Microsoft Windows and Mac computers. The box art features a cartoon rendition of quarterback Steve Young.
Why is Backyard Football important to the Backyard Sports franchise?
It established the real-NFL-player licensing approach that every subsequent Backyard Sports title would follow. As the inaugural entry in the Backyard Football line, it set the structural and tonal template for the multiple sequels that came after.
More in Humongous Entertainment games 1-24
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