What makes Head Coach special is all of the little things. In my Browns career I signed an undrafted rookie who ended up blossoming into a “77 overall” player who made the squad and played the nickel. My Special Teams demon Josh Cribbs missed the first game of the year because he injured his head diving into a swimming pool at his house. These are huge bullet point features but it’s these little touches that gave the game its personality.

Players are rated in many different categories than they are in Madden and a head case might skip practice all together or demand a trade. Team cohesion is important as are signing players that fit into your system. Just because a defensive tackle is a 90 overall doesn’t mean he’ll fit into your 3-4 scheme if he’s used to playing the 4-3. You also have to pay attention to how quickly a player will learn a system as some are better than others. It’s deep, rewarding, and simply a blast to construct your roster in this game.

Speaking of ratings, your coach is also rated in a slew of categories that look like a skill tree in a typical role-playing game. As your coach earns experience you can increase his skill as well as all of your assistants (even your trainer). Skills might help the team work together better, develop linebackers quicker, etc. The list is huge and crafting your coach is an important part of the long term game (which runs for a maximum of 15 seasons.)

However, just like the on the field game which is both great fun and at times frustrating, the off the field game has its share of quirks, too. Perhaps the most egregious bug deals with injuries and the play creation tool. There is a nasty bug in the game that shuts off all injuries when you go into the play creator. It can ruin a league because injuries no longer occur and players also stop healing. This bug is triggered by going into the play creation tool via the Coach Clipboard. If you do this, the bug pops up, ruining your franchise. The workaround is to go into this tool via the main menu, but if you don’t know this it can destroy your game.

You’re going to want to go into the play creator, though, because devising your own plays from scratch is a joy. The interface is easy and you can instruct players to run a wide assortment of routes, go in motion, run play action, you name it. You can come up with some pretty nifty designs. Again this harkens back to the days of FPS: Football. You don’t have the same degree of freedom but building your own custom playbook is a fantastic feature.

Even with its quirks and bugs, NFL Head Coach 09 is the type of game that will silently siphon away hours of your free time. Sitting down at night after the family has gone to bed to get in an hour or so of game time only to discover that all of a sudden it’s the middle of the night and your eyes are straining. In many ways NFL Head Coach is the Civilization of sports games. Just one more turn, just one more week of planning -- just one more scouting report. There are some games that simply bring too much fun to the table and are a joy to play despite its problems—Head Coach 09 is one of those games.

(Editor’s note. EA Sports has announced plans for a patch via XBL and PSN to fix some of the bugs mentioned in this review as well as many other additions. There is no set timeline for a release of the update. Stay tuned for more details as we get them.

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