When Electric Football was created and introduced to the toy and game market in 1949, it was marketed as a tabletop sports game of American Gridiron Football. It was unique from other tabletop sports games in that it had 22 individual miniature “action posed” football figure “players” that would all move independently of each other when the electromagnetic motor mounted underneath the metal game board playing surface, was activated, setting the whole thing in motion.
What was created when that happened has often been described as a chaotic mass of uncertainty and uncontrolled movement by the players with no real sense of direction and purposeful meaning.
Nothing could be farther from the truth!!
OK, it usually would take several hours of working with the player figures, manipulating the “cleats” – the prongs underneath the base of the figure – of the players to get them to run in the direction that you wanted them to go in, somewhat straight, with possibly some speed and maybe with some strength.
One of just several videos available on YouTube that shows you the “Why and How” of “tweaking bases” – this video courtesy of the Play EF Channel
And it would take an even longer amount of time and lots and lots of practice to master the art and skill of passing the miniature felt footballs with the provided passing and kicking apparatus that was supposed to be the “Quarterback” / “Kicker” player figure.
Passing in an electric football game with the TTQB – Video courtesy of the PhillyNEFL Channel
But I am getting away from the real purpose of making this post. I recently submitted a post on the Facebook Group Page “Tabletop Sports Board Games”. As of now, 1/15/2026 at 1:56 PM CST, 16 hours after making this post, it has yet to receive any likes or comments. About what I expected but not quite. I thought I would have gotten at least one like and /or comment by now. But, hey!! It is what it is.
Chris LeMay Tabletop Sports Board Games
January 14, 2026
“I sometimes see posts here that reference electric football games. Electric Football is a tabletop sports game that more often than not isn’t considered a traditional board game. Why is that? Is it because the game is played on a motorized vibrating game board with individually independent moving game pieces, requiring actual physical skills to master the art of passing and kicking a miniature football. Is it because you have to actually “train” the players and work with the bases to get them to move in the direction that you want them to with hopefully some sort of speed and strength? Is it because you have to actually have some knowledge of how a specific offensive formation and play is supposed to work against a specific defensive formation and coverage. Is it because you have to actually set up your players in those formations and hope that they all move in the right direction to execute those plays as you have imagined and get the results that you had hoped for.
Electric football is not a game that was intended to be dependent on random rolls of a die or dice, spinning a spinner, turning up decks of cards and / or consulting charts to find out the rules of a play. It is not a game that is based on the historical statistics of its teams and players. Although some forms of the game as it is played in a solitaire format have incorporated those things into its game play procedures.
I am not knocking traditional football board games. I was playing and enjoying many of these type games long before I began playing electric football. And I still collect those games and use some of the things I find in those games in my everyday solitaire electric football game play to enhance my overall electric football game playing experience.
Hopefully I haven’t offended too many people here and I would love to hear and read about your thoughts and opinions on electric football. Thanks.”
I am going to give it a few more days and see if I get any likes or comments and if not, I may just delete the post and leave the group. At that point it would be obvious to me that no one in that group really cares anything about electric football and my participation in that group is certainly not appreciated or worth my time and effort to follow it and try to talk with anyone about the game and hobby of electric football on there.
One other note: I did just check the membership of that private group, and I see that it has 1714 members as of today. with 9 of my “friends” also in that group. It took some searching, but I did finally find the “About” info for this group: This group is for discussing tabletop sports games for pretty much any sport. Please, no claims that your favorite game is the best. Be content to tell us what you like about it. No computer games. No game sales. Enjoy!
Also, I would like to hear from any of you that follow these posts and get your thoughts on where exactly electric football stands in the world and community of tabletop sports board games. Please leave your comments below.
Thanks!!
The National Electric Football Game Museum 