For too long I've been putting my feelings at bay. It's time to tackle these emotions and prevent them from styling all over me. I love the 2004 video game NFL Street and I feel it deserves its own week. Coming off the dorsals of Shark Week, this week seems to be freed up so everyone can focus on what matters. Although I'm far from being an expert, I'll share the tips I've accumulated from my experience with the Xbox version of NFL Street. I'll also share the info I gathered when I read through some forums for 20 minutes one day waiting for a bus to arrive.

The NFL Challenge mode of this game can be tricky for beginners, but if you know how to level your team you'll be busting balls in no time. No one is paying me to do this by the way. I'm about 13 years too late for relevancy. This is all for the love of the game. I hope I contribute to a renaissance of EA Sports BIG games and revive an interest in these solid, solid playable works of art. To kick things off here is some basic information about the game.

Basic rules of streetball: Games are seven on seven, there are no referees, there are no injuries, no steroids, no Madden halftime report nonsense, just the game and good beats. Players also frequently defy the laws of physics. There are also no women (which doesn't surprise me because it's the NFL, but in NBA Street you could play as 3LW and make a female baller, so I'll just sip my tea over here, EA Sports). There is no kicking or punting, and only running and passing plays are used, after a successful touchdown the PAT will be a more or less five-yard run to the endzone for one point, or a completed pass in the endzone from maybe 10 yards for about two points. Every character plays defense, people wear cool clothes, you can earn style points by making the enemy look like a scrub, when you get enough style points you can use a Gamebreaker, which blocks out the sun, makes your players very fast and practically unstoppable. Gamebreakers 99% of the time result in a guaranteed turnover or touchdown depending on who has the ball, and there is a lot of bullpoo in this game. Oh yeah defensive conversions (PATs gone awry) are worth four points and safeties are worth two. TDs are still six points.

NFL Challenge mode is pretty much the campaign mode in this game, the name of which is NFL Street. You have seven players that you can customize, options including appearance, voice, clothes, size, and style moves. You then use those players to complete challenges against real NFL teams. Challenges include all sorts of things, from being ahead of the Colts after 10 minutes, to forcing two fumbles and beating the Vikings in a game to 30, and even feats as ridiculously improbable as pitching the ball six times against the Bengals on your first play. Come on, I couldn't even do that against Detroit (this is a burn that has healed)!

Beating challenges yields different rewards which are not random and the game will let you know what you get. It's usually development points, which you can use to upgrade the skills of your players (which you'll need to do in most cases), but sometimes you get special gear that enhances stats, new playbook plays, and even new team logos. If you can pull it off, you can go up against an NFL team in a standard game to 36 and recruit one of their players for your team. So if I challenged the Ravens and won (this was made in 2004, so not a bad idea to do that) I could pick up Ray Lewis, or Jonathan Ogden, or Ed Reed, or even Chris McAlister if I want problems with authority. I'm joking, he's pretty solid.

Challenges aren't free, though. To participate in a challenge you need to pay a certain number of tokens. If you run out of tokens, you'll need to defeat all four teams in your division in a game to 36, then defeat an all-star team comprised of 2004's finest players in a division. Once you do that, you net 800 more tokens, you can play as the now defeated all-star team in other game modes, and you get to unlock another field/division in NFL Challenge, allowing for more opportunities to build your team. When you defeat all teams and exhaust your tokens, you can play against the NFL Legends team, which includes greats such as Walter Payton, Lawrence Taylor, Lester Hayes, and Barry Sanders. Smash them and take your spot as the new legends. You can also choose one legend to join your created team (welcome aboard, LT) and you unlock a pick-up game mode that makes all players available, allowing for dream team wars with friends. I don't recommend playing this game mode against the computer, they just scroll to the legends for almost every position every time I play and it takes too long. I gotta game, asap.

I recommend spending some thought when naming your characters, as you'll become attached to them. Clint Maddox is one of the best RBs in the league on my hard disk, and although Benny The Lad has committed some frustrating mistakes on the field, he typically comes through when I need him most. Attaching yourself to your created players will elicit higher satisfaction when tallying a win, and will surely anchor a sense of pride in your created team. You'll also learn what your players are capable of. My QB is not great at passing so my play style is very focused on running, which my QB can handle okay. I advise you to figure out what works and beef that department up. Bolster your weaknesses, yes, but don't ignore a golden egg when you see one.

Those are the basics of NFL Street if you want to order it on amazon, dig through your basement, or find it on an emulator. If you play it on Xbox you can burn CDs to your console and listen to music in the menus, but outside of menus you gotta listen to some nice beats with quality scratching. I love the in-game music mostly because it's nostalgic, but I don't know why you can't listen to your music outside of menus. Maybe the technology just wasn't there yet. Otherwise you can listen to the in-game soundtrack with a lot of The X-Ecutioners and also a song featuring both Nas and Korn. Lil Flip made the cut, too. This music is only suitable to me in this virtual football environment, and I would probably never listen to it walking down the street or bump it in my whip for all sorts of birds and small mammals to hear. Tomorrow I'll tell you the consensus on player stats and how to build your team. I'm writing all of this for me, but feel free to take advantage of my knowledge or reminisce on the good old days.