Even though the Alien and Predator franchises have both gone in some weird directions over the years, their individual missteps pale in comparison to the insanity of the Alien vs Predator franchise. The war between these two interstellar species began in Dark Horse comic books back in 1989, and it came to arcades not long after in 1994. But sometime in the mid-90s, that battle almost came to video game consoles in a completely unexpected fashion: a cosmic football game. That’s right, there was almost an Alien vs Predator football video game set in the distant future. Find out all about it below.

Last week, the National Videogame Museum (via Comic Book Resources) stumbled upon some concept art and details for an Alien vs Predator football video game called Cosmic Hard Bowl. Instead of fighting like normal deadly extra-terrestrial creatures, the two species would have competed against each other in American football. And it all would have happened in the year 2702. Here’s some of the concept art:

Here’s what the roughly translated Japanese text says about the game on these papers:

“Mankind had neutralized the 400+ year war between Aliens and Predators. Now they have agreed to finalize the conflict by American Football on Earth. The Alien Football League and the Predator Football League were born and fierce battles engaged for the Super Bowl Title. There was only one new rule. The quarterback must be human.”

Holy shit. How the hell is a human quarterback supposed to survive playing a football game with Aliens and Predators as all the other players? Why would an human want to participate in this cosmic rivalry? Why would either the Aliens or Predators agree to a sport that is so specific to one part of the globe? Why is the xenomorph wearing a football helmet when their head is already made to be so tough? What is this insanity?

It only gets weirder when you see how the teams were laid out. Don’t forget, each side has their own league:

So this isn’t just the Aliens and Predators playing a single game to decide the fate of their war. Each of them have their own leagues where they have to compete with each other in order to determine which team goes to the final Super Bowl.

The Alien Football League (left) has the Anchorage King Salmons, the Los Angeles Blade Runners (that’s awesome), Houston Exterminators, Chicago Dirty Heroes, Dallas Jet Flying Kickers, and Washington DC Bashings. Their leagues motto is, “My mom is the team owner. I crave some fresh human-quarterbacks.” So yeah, these human quarterbacks are definitely dying.

Meanwhile, the Predator Football League has the Seattle Samurai Mifunes, San Francisco Black Catfish, Detroit Big 3, Las Vegas American Dreams, New York Psychic Murders, and the Miami Dolphin Creatures (sounds like someone got lazy). Their motto is, “My chieftain is the team owner. I will turn you into a fully-grown quarterback warrior.”

Keep in mind that this is also translated roughly from Japanese, so some of these team names would like be reworked for American gamers.

In the end, the game never came together. But we might have gotten a taste of what it could have been like in the form of the 1993 Sega Genesis game Mutant League Football. Either way, we’re a little disappointed that we never got to play this game. Maybe it can make a comeback on one of the next generation systems.