APBA Football: The 1989 NFL Season

It's safe to say it has been awhile, but this site will finally get rolling as I will be rolling some dice on my next APBA project, the 1989 NFL Season.

The 1989 APBA Football set kind of fell into my lap. I mentioned online that I was getting back into NFL Football when my friend Craig, mentioned he was selling his 89' APBA set, it proved to be perfect since I was originally looking to land the 1990 APBA Football set for its stars. I was going to use its stars towards a blend project that had players of the past merged with today's players. That project will eventually involve its Greatest Teams sets and All-Time Team sets.

For the time being, and to get myself seasoned for that project, I plan to replay the 1989 NFL Season (Well... for the most part), by playing entire Week 1, selected games between Weeks 2 & 15 (70+ games) and Week 16 games that have playoff implications.


I remember the 1989 NFL Season well, I remember the season going all the way to the final weekend to figure out the fates of the teams in the AFC Central. Bernie Kosar (pictured right) and the Cleveland Browns won the division with a 9-6-1 record, while the last place team, the defending AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals were 8-8. Four other teams just missed the playoffs in the Kansas City Chiefs (8-7-1), Indianapolis Colts (8-8), Miami Dolphins (8-8) and the Los Angeles Raiders (8-8).

The AFC Central alone has me excited about this project. The Bengals kind of choked, considering they had the best scoring differential in the division (+119)... Their scoring differential was also 2nd best in AFC & 3rd best in the entire NFL. The Browns won their 4th Division title in 5 years, as this team is end of that great run of Cleveland teams, while the team would not return to the playoffs until 1994 under Bill Belichick. The Houston Oilers were a competitive bunch with consistent playoff appearances under Jerry Glanville, and although 1989 was Glanville's last season, the Oilers would continue trips to the playoffs through 1993 under quarterback Warren Moon.

The AFC had only one 10-game winner in the top-seeded 11-5 Denver Broncos, while the NFC had 7 teams that had 10-or-more wins, but only 5 of those NFC teams moved onto the playoffs. The Washington Redskins and Green Bay Packers (both 10-6) were left out in the cold.

Christian Okoye runs through the Saints.

It should be noted that the high win totals in the NFC also had a lot to do with the 1-15 Dallas Cowboys and 3-13 Atlanta Falcons, especially in the NFC East with Washington finishing in 3rd place. Washington probably wishes that they were not the lone team to lose to Dallas that season, which definitely hurt their chances of any postseason.

Another thing to remember is that only 5 teams from each conference move on to the playoffs -- all 3 division winners, plus two wild card teams that play in a Wild Card Game.

Other interesting seasons facts, 3rd-year Packers quarterback Don Majkowski has the best year of his career in 1989, passing for 4,318 yards, Joe Montana (49'ers) wins MVP, and Christian Okoye unleashes the nightmare for 1,480 yards rushing. The San Francisco 49'ers would win their last Super Bowl under Montana, as the Niners would destroy the Denver Broncos, 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV.

The great thing about APBA Football, their fates all might be different this time around in 1989.

Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas & Deion Sanders all made their rookie debuts, kicking off fantastic Hall of Fame careers