The NFL Strikes: 1982 and 1987

your genial hosts as we're gonna do something special. As we're in a time going on where the coronavirus pandemic has shut sports down for a good period of time, we're looking back at some what some special teams did during some years in which there was either no games played or we had big interruptions, and there were large swaths of time where there were no games played. Last week we look back at Major League Baseball strike which cost Major League Baseball over fifty games for a team,

and the lockout which there was no World Series. This episode, we look back at the NFL strikes of nine eight, two and seven. And if you thought, if you listen to last week's podcast and you thought major League Baseball, especially in nine eight one, did some lacky things, well, let me tell you exactly what the NFL strike was all about. Because Mike, at this point I was used to it. I mean, I was eleven years old, but I had just seen a baseball strike and I kind

of understood, Okay, the players wanted something. They wanted to be treated better, and the owners didn't want to treat them. Well, that's kind of what I thought of when I was ten years old, not knowing the business aspect of it. And then the NFL strike comes up, and I'm thinking the same thing. The players want to be treated better and the owners don't want to do it for him. So I was always a players guy during strikes as a kid, just as I didn't understand the machinations of everything.

So again I'm here going, okay, now we're not gonna have football games because the owners and in the league doesn't well, don't want the players to have more than what they have right now. Well, sure, and watching television or listening to whatever you were around the house. I mean, it was about the working man, right. That was the theme of a lot of sitcoms when we were growing up, was how they were getting screwed by the man. Uh

So it was easy to identify. And here from the NFL perspective, you don't recognize how much revenue is generated on a weekly basis when you're ten or eleven or eight years older, you know, and rolling through you're you're thinking about, I just want my guys beating the hell out of each other on a Sunday, my team to win jets uh, and and that you were just excited for each of those weeks done fold because we didn't

have it multiple days. I mean, you had some Monday night football actually, because you didn't have the rest of the rest of the mechanics that we do now. So I mean Sunday really was held to that sacred spot and you had no idea what is being fought over because it would always be couched in in big rhetoric of you know, how you get into larger union strife, whether it's these pro athletes or any other business in America.

So in the players, what they mainly wanted was a bigger percentage of gross revenues, which is what players want all the time now. Every time you hear a CBA negotiations, a you guys have a lot of money, you got to give us more money, and the owners go on, we don't have any money, we can't do this for you. So even back in two this is what they were fighting about and same thing for the NFL now whenever they get into cb A situations a fifty seven day strike.

What this meant was the NFL season was going to be nine games long. Alright, so nine games in the playoffs, right, But they decided to make a special sixteen team playoff tournament. Not not we're gonna play this that playoff teams, No, No, they put in sixteen teams, eight from each con from So this is before expansion, so by this is like the NBA, where everybody made the playoffs. Division standings were ignored. It didn't matter if you played in the A f

C East an f C West. Eight teams the top eight from each conference were seated one through eight, best record to worst, as they wanted to make sure the best teams got in just because over half the season was playing. Now, this last part, I understand wanting to put the teams in with the best record because you had some teams sitting at you know, five and four leading their division. It's okay, you're really not that good, but you know, you don't just get in just because

you win a division after playing half a season. They wanted to make sure the best six team teams got in. I don't know that they needed sixteen teams. For some reason, they decided sixteen was a big number, and so they wound up letting in teams with losing records into the playoffs. But this was their thing. They wanted to get everybody in. So it was a very, very weird situation. So they seeded all the teams one through eight, and one played eight in the first round of two played seven, and

three played six, and four played five. And there's all kinds of games going on the weekend. It was like a normal NFL week, and I remember watching game after game after game, going, boy, this is kind of cool with all these playoff games going on. I'm ready for the n c Double A tournament. Now let's go bracketology two style, there's no question. But what's interesting, though, is I think you'd also have people proposing in this day and age, can we just simulate those last games of

the regular season so we just get the sixteen. Hey, but at least they did better than baseball. Everybody had played the same number of Damn, it's a little easier in football. There's only a lot less games going on. I know it's not in the wink to the insane effort of trying to do the schedule as it did. You played a hundred and four, you played a hundred

twelve as same thing. Let's go so before we get to the special teams that really stood out here, Uh, this is just some things that went on during the

players strike and some changes that came to the NFL. Now, eight eighty two was the first year sacks became an official statistic in the National football This is why the all time sack record is meaningless because they just started keeping it in eighty two, and you had guys that probably had thirty forty sacks in a season, but doesn't matter because we didn't start keeping until so it's kind of meaningless and also, you know, cheapened by the whole

straight hand far thing. And for the for the first time, many uh East Coast games were in a four pm Eastern time window. Now, for years and years and years, you and I have woken up and it's always been we have the early games, you have the late games. But that wasn't always the case. Usually every game at that time was one o'clock local time, regardless as to who was home. So you had you were you had

a home game, you were one o'clock. If you were on the East coast to West coast, whatever home team you were in, you played at one o'clock. Now you had East Coast games late, so you got to see better games later on in the day. And I remember how weird that was, seeing boy the Jets. It's dark out. They gotta turn the lights on. It's seven o'clock that Jets are playing. I don't understand this. And my grandmother was always yelling, cause I live with my grandparents gone.

When can I have dinner? My grandfather go after the game. There's two more minutes left, that's gonna be half an hour. We'll eat down here, bring our food down to the basement. That was the best because I got to eat in the basement and watch the end of Jets games, because you know, they would play at four o'clock and and sometimes go all the way untill seven, seven thirty seven.

And my grandmother's like, Jason's gotta get ready for school, He's gotta take a bath, he's gotta finish his all for the game will be over soon, don't worry about it. Take a bath. Oh yeah, filth those days, you know, And I don't know why, because all the other times I would take showers, but for some reason, on Sunday nights, my grandmother wanted me to take a bath. I don't know why. I'm like, I'll just take show ease your lead baths free. I'll just I'll just gonna take a shower. No, no,

take a bath Sunday. I could shower all the other days, but Sunday was a bad I don't know why Sunday was a bath day. I really don't get it. So that was kind of a fun little tweak now of the countant. Can you imagine not playing the way you're playing at one o'clock no matter what, We're missing all these great games and not being able to move things for TV. So that was the first time that happened. Now,

during the strike, they decided to have to all Star games. Right, well, the strike is going on to a f C NFC All Star games, and one was in Washington, one was in Los Angeles. Now, not many star players came to

play in this. In these two games, it was away for the NFL to say, well, with some kind of football out of here, so we'll have an All Star game and people able to play One of the stars who played was John Riggins, who went on to be Super Bowl m v P later on, and he actually said during a postgame interview, well, I'll do anything for money, because you know, these guys aren't getting paid. And he said, I'll I'll do I'll do it. You're paying me, Ylcolm,

I'll do anything for money. So this is what it was like at the time. We're trying to feed a football you know, a country that's just starting to become football reliant, football crazy. Let's have a couple of All Star games. We can't get good players. Oh, you'll pay me a couple of guys will show up at least. Look, here's what I mean. In the Pro Bowl, the the winner only got five grand. Well five grand I want

to know what they're paying for these All Stars. I know five grande and eighty two has got to be like, you know, fifteen grand now, Uh, we gotta wait, I gotta calculate that one. So while that happened on the field during the strike, I mean, how insane is that during a strike, we're gonna have games. Wait I thought we were striking. No, No, we're gonna have games. You know what You're I'm too bad off. I gotta stop you because I got the answer. Oh uh yeah, it's

worth about thirteen thousand three. Oh. I was really close with that, and you're a lot closer than I would have expected. Good for you, and I am not good at math. That is also that was fantastic spitballing right there. So while the league is trying to figure out things with these two a f C NFC All Star games, what did the television stations do? NBC aired CFL game, They aired Canadian Football League games before they decided no one's watching these things and they just stopped airing them.

So it's like, so if you were buying into the Montreal Alouettes or the Saskatchewan rough Riders or the other rough Riders team, or the Edmonton Eskimos or the BC Lions or whoever was, and then they just you know, it's not where we're staying to air these games anymore. Well, how am I going to see the CFL games moved to Canada? No? Uh? Now, now you just slap it on another network. Uh. Some stations replayed Super Bowls on Sunday. That doesn't sound familiar at all, No, not at all. Hey, look,

that's been going on with coronavirus. Right, we're seeing old old Super Bowls on television. They also aired Division three football games Division three, not Division one, Chicago games Division three. Here's the Maroons getting after it in looking this up right and saying, oh my god, what kind of Division three football games did they do? And I looked for audio of this and I couldn't find it. Pat summer All in John Madden. Okay, Madden and summer All did

play by play of Baldwin Wallace versus Wittenberg. Oh, we gotta put out a bounty for that, be dub versus Wittenberg. Okay, summer All Wallace. How do you think that conversation went when Summer All Madden are going, you know, we're gonna take some time off wait for the strike. And oh no, you're contracting you're doing Baldwin Wallace Whittenberg. What we're going? Where to do? What? Division three football? Yeah? Not making that trip. I'm calling my agent. Then the agent says, uh,

it's sort of in your contract. You gotta do a game every Sunday so they can send you to Division three. Uh yeah, um, you know what your next contract? What do you mean I'm fired, I'm uh guess up the Madden Cruiser get efforts. Yeah, something about it later. Wait, I can't say murders you wrote. I I really that that you think about what what stations did to try to figure things out. Now, Luckily, when we live in this area now, in where there's thousands of other things

to do, you know we're not be holding on. I gotta watch Baldwin Wallace Whittenberg. What's the point? Spread got Whittenberg? Is Wittenberg? The college was Wittenberg the name of the coach? Or is that the quarterback? I'll take Wittenberg taking the jumper that Lorenzo Charles dunks. That's what I'm gonna have. So that was what happened during the NFL. You thought I was lying what I said. You like a Major League baseball did? This is even more insane. Air comes

Baldwin Wallace. Wallace, Oh that's not the quarterback. Let me cross that off. Baldwin's not there. Well, here's a handoff, boll. I like the intensity of this kid. He's just about three steps slower than law Taylor. Three step slower. So wait for that truck to come down. I wonder if Pat Summer all said, I'm gonna say even less words doing this. I'm gonna say a hundred words during this broadcast. I'll parse it out till the end of the game. But I'm only going to say a hundred words, and

you can't make first down tackle. Wait, wait, second down tackle. Uh. So this is where we were at. But finally the players came back to play and we had the playoffs coming up. Next, we take a look at three of the most special of all of these teams as we steam forward here on Special Teams, looking back at the infamous NFL stray. Continuing on here on Special Teams are NFL Strikes edition of fifty seven. Day strike has settled.

The NFL has a sixteen team tournament to determine the playoff teams, in which some teams with losing records get in the playoffs. The Detroit Lions actually found a way to sneak into the playoffs. They were only four and five. But three teams specifically made big leaps this year even though they fell short of the Super Bowl. The first one is the Jets. The Jets had a fantastic year. They finished six and three. They upset the number one team in the a f C, the Los Angeles Raiders.

They make it to the a f C Championship game, but of course lose the mud ball, very famous game to the Dolphins fourteen to nothing. And for my entire life, I will believe the Jets when they say all week long that field in Miami was suppo was to be covered. Miami had like torrential rain all week long, and the Dolphins never covered the football field, which they're supposed to do, and you're supposed to keep the field nice. But they decided not to cover the field because the Dolphins hallmark

was their great defense. The Jets hallmark was a high flying offense. They were deep and running back deep at wide receiver. They moved the football up and down the field, and it was a mud bowl. You look at the field and you go, oh, my goodness, how does the NFL allow this game to happen? Sparely? The NFL didn't care that the Dolphins didn't cover the field, so they played this in mud. They could still be playing this game, you know, thirty forty years later, and the Jets would

still have zero points. They didn't come close to scoring a point in this game. X Jet would he Bennett runs for a touchdown. A J Dewey has three interceptions, including one he returns for a touchdown. The Jets were never gonna win this game. They're never gonna do it, and this is a great team. This was Free McNeil leading the NFL and rushing the sack exchange Wesley Walker. But Richard Todd throws five bleeping interceptions in this game.

He was absolutely terrible. But it didn't matter because the Jets couldn't do anything, and the Dolphins win and they wind up moving on in the playoffs. But this was my first taste of, oh, my goodness, my football team can be good, because the Jets have been terrible my entire life. But now, oh my good the Jets are good. They're almost in the Super Bowl. So now but now I'm I'm hook line and sinker in on the Jets for the rest of my life, which you know, in

retrospect was probably not the best thing for me. Uh. This is also a great reminder of how different the NFL is now than it was in nine two, because there's no chance in hell this is ever allowed unless you're gonna try to go play a game in Mexico. High where the field is a quagmire. I mean, you still have some rules and regulations to the way they

do that. I mean like they I like the the bravado of We're gonna do these international competitions, which gotta make sure that the field is actually playable, right, I mean they did not do their due diligence and had to come back to the state side. But whenever you see and and a lot of these stadium you know, stad uh, there's still problems because if the building is old, drainage isn't as great, but you still have the effort

some level of management, right whereas here it was whatever. No, I know, that's the act sune where the NFL was man. So the Dolphins, sorry, I know, fat Dolphins wind up going to the Super Bowl this year. Hey hooray the Dolphin went um. Meanwhile, another special team was the Green Bay Packers, who made the playoffs for the first time

since Vince Lombardi was their head coach in Maine seventy two. Now, this team was fun because this Packers team, they were always a team that was on late and it was I felt like the Packers were always down three or seven late in the game. All they did was throw the football. Right. This was Lynn Dicky a quarterback, John Jefferson, James Lofton, Paul Coffin was the tight end, and all

they did was throw the football. And you're talking about Hall of Fame caliber wide receivers in Lowthon and Jefferson was so good with both the Packers and the San Diego Chargers. But this Packers seems suddenly, Hey, all they did was was go up and down the field, and they were so much fun. And it was boy, look at look at green Bay, look a look at something. Hey, it's it's it's seeing one of those great heritage teams be good again after not being good for a long time.

And the Packers making the playoffs is a really big deal. They wind up losing the second game they play. They beat St. Louis, they lose to the Cowboys thirty seven twenty six. But this was, man, You know, the Packers are a lot of fun. Let's let's let's spend some time going back and seeing a team that built the NFL, you know, twelve or thirteen years ago. Well you got Eddie Lee, Ivory, Harlan Hucklebe, Oh yeah, Harlan Hucklebee hitting

a couple of attempts in there. You just wanted to say Harlan huckle Well, because if I remember right, Brent Musburger would I think it was Brent Musberger who would always say Huckleberry and they would call him, you call Harlan Huckleberry because we try to say Huckleby, we would call him Huckleberry. I'm pretty sure it was Fred Musburger. I'm pretty have to go and huckleberry. You were looking

live Mbo Field, Babe, I'll be your Huckleberry. You don't have to double daremy start going in all my Toby Keith discography as we go. But James Lofton one of those guys and underappreciated receiver. I think Packers had a couple of those, right because STERLINGK. Sharp. I mean, we know Shannon through his work and you know in the media and obviously a Hall of Fame career, but Sterling Sharp was a beast for them later on, uh in

the decade. But James James Lofton was is a guy that you know both as a player and then as a commentator. I just lists eat up every word that guy's got. He and John Jefferson together on that squads a Bears fan. As a Bears fan, you know, I had an early hatred of them. You appreciated, you know, the skill level of the guys that they were running again and against. And you know, obviously Lynn Dickey being

one of those legends. I actually had a helmet that's signed by a bunch of old time greats and Lynn Dickey's on there. Oh nice. Well, I remember Lofton too, you know, at the end of his career, was one of the most important players of the Buffalo Bills, the teams that went to a bunch of Super Bowls, and he was he was there, one of their big stars on the team that wound up going to the Super Bowl,

losing the famous game of the Giants. And maybe this is this is ten years later and James Lofton is is still a really big player in the NFL at wide receiver. I mean, this team started out, they were loaded. They were a lot of fun, although I gotta say not as much fun as the San Diego Chargers. This year turned out to be the last playoff appearance for Dan Fouts, Charlie Joyner, and Kellen Winslow. Now for my money,

these Chargers. I mean I know that I was young watching them, but they were the best team to never win the Super Bowl. They were so loaded on offense for so long. West Chandler was All Pro this year, James Brooks at running back. You know, they had had John Jefferson already. It was just their defense was never good enough, and they thought, we're gonna keep throwing the

football and outscore you. And they lost in that that a f C Championship game to the Bengals when it was minus fifty degrees out and and you know, they couldn't do do their thing there. And it was always, boy, they were so talented, they never had the defense. And it was the beginning of the teams that you would say, they can't win in the cold. They can't go on

the road and win in the playoffs. They have to be able to play at home when the weather is nice and they can throw the football up and down the field. That was like the first time you heard of teams and okay, they're a weather specific team. When the weather is nice, they're great, But you go on the road is tough. Because later on, when Dan Marino

became quarterback in the Dolphins, that was the big thing. Uh, you want to get the Dolphins on the road late in the season, it's tougher to throw the football around And really that's kind of a misnomer now, but that was the beginning of that thought process back then. Well but what's really funny though, is that Dan Marino was a big endorser and distributor of Isotoner gloves. Yeah, you couldn't throw the ball and had some issues cold weather. So you know, hey, it's kind of funny the way

that all works together. Uh, never did find a pair. I want to get a pair from one of the linemen that he gave them to. I think you can get isotoners on eBay. I think you'd get a pair of those. No, no, no no, but I want a pair that was given to one of his teammates. Oh well,

that's gonna be tough, that's what I want. I remember his commercial was watching You Can Do the Ice Tones, and he would pick up a key like they was sitting on the table because that was the thing you would have gloves on and it was so hard to pick up tiny objects, it was like, but isotners were so next level. All they're just tight gloves and you look, you could pick up a key and it was wow, you could pick up a key with that. Oh my goodness, Wow,

Look at those is triers. They weren't big bulky mittens. Getting back to what what that Charger team was. Man, you know Kellen Winslow. Uh, what what's the word we use? Mercurial is how we describe players in the media. That's him, Charlie Joyner another underrated guy I think in the annals of receiver history and Dan Fausts and just winging the

ball around. I mean, they were always fun to watch in one of those late games, right because you know, the afternoon windows is that stuff started to come into into the forefront of things. I mean that they were always just fun to watch because it was a different style of football than you were used to watching as as a Bears fan. And you appreciated the brilliance of of Walter Payton and being a one man gang oftentimes

him and whomever the fullback was at the moment. But to watch a passing attack and I've still been watching this and I go back watch a T two tape, uh and say that I've still only had two or three seasons in my Bears fan indom where I had any semblance of a down field passing game. So I still look back fondly on those eighty two Churchers, you know. And just real quick on that Green Bay game, I

told you they lost to Dallas. H Dallas makes it to the NFC Championship game in Green Bay falls just short. You thought Green Bay was gonna be great. They didn't make the playoffs again until and for the Cowboys, who would lose to the Redskins in the NFC title Game. It was the last win in Tom Landry's career in the playoffs. In fact, it would be their last playoff

win until you had a team. You know, the Steelers and the Cowboys were the teams of the seventies and okay, you're called the eighties, and it was no, that's it for the Cowboys. You're done eight two, that's it. You're gonna go nine more years for you make the playoffs. And this is when you have to wait a while until Aikman and Irvin and and Emmett Smith wind up getting drafted. And that was a big guff of emptiness

for the Dallas Cowboys in the eighties. Uh So, but I'm gonna end something fun for you, buddy, because I know you relived a whole like two decades worth of sucking there in the last in the last couple of minutes, I mean, Emery moorehead two was the leading receiver for the Bears, three hundred sixty three yards. Uh So the Redskins win the Super Bowl. This is John Reggans in the big fourth and one run to the end zone. You've seen in NFL films a hundred times. They win

the Super Bowl over the Dolphins. And and you know, the NFL gets back to normal the next year. But to end in a fun way for you, buddy, because nineteen eighty two, even though it wasn't a great year for the Bears, actually did turn out to be a great year for the Bears. After the nineteen eight one season, the Chicago Bears fired head coach Neil Armstrong, I mean lands on the moon in nineteen sixty nine and gets

fired in nineteen eight one. But it was Neil with two else Neil Armstrong, and he is hired to replace him, Mike Ditka, whose first year with the Bears didn't go great, but of course then and within three years built the Bears into one of the most famous Super Bowl champions of all time. So see, buddy, it ended fine for you. It did. We we get into the off season, did cut and as Permanent came to town, I may have emulated that and started shooting my gun really fast. You

don't need to talk like that. You can still talk normal. You don't gotta talk. You gotta talk like you're trying to do half simple witch and half normal Mike Harmon voice. No, but if you if you're gonna talk about Ditka, then you have to speak and the reverence often portrayed in talking about Mike Ditka And just for that, I might have to ship you in a couple of beef sandwiches. So that was the two NFL strike. Told you it

was insane. Uh, Coming up next the NFL strike. Now it wasn't nearly as long, but yeah, we got some stuff where you gotta here. This is Special Teams with Jason Smith and Mike Harmon. So now we head to nine eight seven as we take a look back at some of the years in which sports was interrupted and there were no games. As we get to the night seven NFL strike, where players wanted a better free agent policy, which is why they went on strike, but in the

end only one week of games got canceled. For three weeks during this strike, the NFL did games with replacement teams and scab players. Right now, everybody's ever seen the movie The Replacements. That's what this is based on. Because in the NFL didn't want to have missed games. They were mad at the players, so they said, hey, anybody who wants to come be scabbed players and cross the picket line and come play, We'll have our doors open

for you. And plenty of owners put pressure on star players and say, listen, I'm paying you a lot of money. I need you to come play football. And one of the reasons why the strike didn't go very long is because every team had players crossed the picket lines. Now, some of them, I can't believe some of them. Who did it be because you had Steve Large and crossed the picket line. Mark Gasinoa the Jets crossed the picket line, and his relationship with the Jets was never the same.

Joe Montana across the picket line. You think about boy, Joe Montana, Yeah, Joe Montana across the picket line. Many players were pissed at these players, because hey, we're striking for something and you're going into play. Some players would stand outside the stadiums on days of games and practices and try to stop players from going in, being scab workers to go in and and and practice. They wanted

them to not do that and show some solidarity. But these were players mostly who were saying, I'm never gonna get a chance to play in the NFL again, but you want me to play here, I'll get to go put on a uniform and get paid for a couple of weeks. Sure, I'll go play. I'm not surprised at the players who took that chance. I am stunned at all the star players and all the big players different teams who wund a crossing the picket line. Yeah, I mean,

I think part of it. It goes back to people that are at the peak of their career wondering if a law lust year is is that huge? You and I have talked a lot during the pandemic and other labor questions and sports and and others about leverage right and who's got it and and where people might be leveraged to a point where they can't stay out and and stay away from from the game. Because remember, it's

not only just their playing contract. A lot of these guys, when you start talking about names like Montana and and these others, I mean, there's also endorsement deals and others that are you know, contingent upon you being you, not you standing with a sign outside a stadium. Well, this is the one time to where where After this, it was every player in every sport realized, Okay, if we're gonna strike and get anything, everybody's got to stay out.

Nobody can cross the picket line. Because that crushed the strike us star players coming coming over to play, and it was okay, we're still playing games, We're not getting anywhere, let's all go back to play. I mean it was. It was a really big deal to have play. I mean, and I can't imagine that some of these guys actually went back into the locker rooms and had great relationships with their teammates. And like I said, these are star players, right.

Mark Gaston was the best defensive lineman, sorry, how he long? He's the best defensive lineman in in the a f C. Joe Montana one was gonna go down as that that worst the second or third best quarterback of all time, you know, large and one of the top wide receivers

ever to play this game. It was. It really surprised me, especially in retrospect, that these guys all said, yep, I gotta go and I I gotta keep getting paid or I owe it to the owners, because that's what I remember mostly is that the owners really pressure the players, saying I'm paying you and I need you to do a lot for I need you to do this, you

owe me. And I remember that was the whole big thing with Mark Gastineau and and and Leon Hessu was the on team was there as a big meeting saying hey, I made you, I'm paying you a lot of cash here and I need you to show me the way and try to do it. And the owners knew they could break the players. And that's exactly what happened. And so we didn't get, you know, hardly any missed time. They wound up moving the schedule a little bit, so there's only one missed game, so it didn't really affect

the season all that much. Before we get to some special teams from this year, one other player who crossed the picket line to go play it was a guy who was painting houses. At that time, he was a quarterback and they asked him, Hey, do you want to come play and be a backup, maybe get in some games, And so Sean Payton said yes and he went to play quarterback for the Bears. That Sean Payton Bears played for the Bears during the strike. In uh, the team it hurt the most who was supposed to do Some

pretty special teams were the New York Giants. I remember the Giants were the defending Super Bowl champions, right they were. They had won in eighties six. It was Phil Simms two out of twenty five against the Broncos, Film mc conky catching the big tip pass, and the Giants were supposed to be a pretty good team. However, because they hounded all the strike games in the final standings, the

Giants didn't put together a good team. And that was what a lot of what that's what some teams decided was screw it, We're not gonna put together a good team. Are these games even really gonna count? The owners were just hoping they would use these games to get the players to come back and play. Some teams went to the wall and put together as good a team as

they possibly could, some just didn't care. The Giants were one of those teams, and as a result, they lost all three strike games, so they didn't make the playoffs. They finished in last place in the NFC East, and they couldn't defend their Super Bowl title. So it's kind of weird that they decided to count the games, but they did, and because of that, the Giants finished six

and nine. Where had they won two of those games and won one more, they would have made the playoffs because you had the Vikings getting in at eight and seven that year as the five seed overall in the NFC, So that just absolutely crushed the New York Giants that year. Uh So your teams in the playoffs in the a f C East, the division champions were the Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns win the Central Broncos win the West. Your wild card teams are the Houston Oilers and the Seattle Seahawks.

In the NFC, I mean the Cleveland, Cleveland and Indianapolis. I mean, back then, Indianapolis was really Indianapolis. They weren't even any good in tech mobile. I mean, this is a bad a f C East, but this Colts team wasn't really that good your you know, your quarterbacks when when you're playing the regular season, where Jack Trudeau, Gary

Hgo Wooman, Shawn Salisbury. I mean, but you had Eric Dickerson, which is a big deal, him coming over from the Rams, and we have a you know, one of the best running backs in the NFL, and you know they really wanted to ride him. But this was not a great Colts team. But they drafted Cornelius Bennett, who went on

to a great career with the Buffalo Bills. But this is this is the Colts having a moment in the sun here finishing nine and six and and going to the playoffs in the a f C. In the NFC, you had the forty Niners who were great thirteen and two. The Bears win the NFC Central all right, The Redskins win the NFC East of year. Wild cards are the Vikings and the Saints. The Saints finishing twelve and three.

And this was a loaded playoff in the NFC this year because here are the Bears who were still living off the eight five Bears. You know, okay, maybe we'll do it in eighty six, but now here there are an eighty seven. Their run is coming to an end, but still division champions back in all those years ago. Man very interesting way this this shook out the Bears over the past vikings in the second place, back when

they were still in a division with the Buccaneers. And think about that, the Buccaneers were in the Central so and they were creamsicles. They lose to the Redskins for the second straight year in the playoffs. The Redskins go to the Super Bowl this year, where they face the Denver Broncos. Now, this is the year in which you've seen plenty of times Timmy Smith running crazy the Broncos, scoring thirty five points in the second quarter of the

Super Bowl. They dismantled the Broncos forty two ten. The Broncos had led this game tend nothing at one point um. But Washington wins the Super Bowl. And this is why they were special, not just because they wound up winning the NFC is winning the Super Bowl. Was they did it. The really smart way was when they struck this year, when when when the NFL team struck, the Redskins signed a bunch of players who were all just familiar with

Joe Gibbs's system. Washington and Philadelphia were the only teams without anyone crossing the picket line. So the Redskins played all three of their games without any regular players, but they signed players who are familiar with Gibbs as system just in case if the games count. This was a smart way to do it, unlike some other teams who did it. So they went all three of their games in the strike season and went went with the replacement players, including they beat the Cowboys, who had a lot of

stars playing by that point. By the second third week of the strike, players are crossing the picket line like crazy. All right, we're gonna come back. We're gonna come back. The Cowboys had a lot of their players playing, and the Redskins still won that game. They win the NFC East by four games over the Cowboys, and they go on to win the Super Bowl. This was Doug Williams.

It was It was a shocking moment. It was a great moment in in in sports history, because here was a team everybody thought was gonna win the Super Bowl in the Broncos with John Elway, and here was Joe Gibbs and Doug Williams who had knocked around the league for a long time, and and and Timmy Smith is an unknown running back and the Redskins just absolutely blitz them in the Super Bowl to win. But you look

back and what really made the season four him? Well, hey, winning those three strike games and they go on and they win the NFC East to win the Super Bowl. Timmy Smith who had a hundred twenty six rushing yards uh in the regular season. Uh. You look at the way it shakes out. One of the great storylines in the background was just how putting these teams together. I found some old quotes from your buddy Gil brandt. Oh boys, Brand loves me. He's still waiting for you to tell

them about the system. I'm sure draft of analysis that uh, and how you ranked players. But you talked about how the players had considered themselves a bit of a cult and they'd get together and in one circumstance body used car for five bucks between them, so they had transportation and they were self reliant and everything, just trying to keep it together. But this was a line that I

thought was pretty interesting. It was refreshing. There were so many interesting, refreshing things that happened that year, just because it wasn't business as normal. Right, You had a bunch of different talent evaluation, trying to get guys back together. I think by they they said by the end, and they had already had nearly twenty of players had crossed, So it fractured, especially when you had all those big names. So certainly not your normal way to to get through

a season. And and what's funny is, as we've done these podcasts between the baseball strikes and two football stoppages here that each one to try to navigate it, you had to have some really interesting meetings between the owners, players and then certainly within the the owners to try to fit in the commissioner and try to figure out a structure. So there it is. There is your nineteen eighties seven strike season, and do you want to finish with an uptick? Note here in nineties seven, during this

the Buffalo Bills finished seven and eight. Now they were doormats for a long time, like they were great with O. J. Simpson the seventies and then the Bills. They still had some pretty good players. Joe Ferguson was a good quarterback and Joe Cribbs was fantastic. But you know, Buffalo certainly had their had their down periods. But in nineteen eight seven, they decided we're gonna make a change at head coach and Marv Levy comes. In his first year as Buffalo

Bills head coach. The Bills finished seven and eight. Okay, not bad because they were four and twelve the year before that, two and fourteen the two years before that, both years before that, so they go too and fourteen, two and fourteen, four and twelve. Hey, here comes Marv Levy and the seven and eight after taking over his

first full year in seven. Well, this is when the Bills go and they win the a f C East, They win the a FC East again, they win it again, they win it again, then they're a wild card, then they win it again. Then they went I mean, this was an incredible run which involved four straight Super Bowls for the Buffalo Bills. But this really started the next era in the a f C. Marv Leavy comes in, it takes him a season and a half to get things going, and then suddenly here are the Bills an

eight eight. The Bills went twelve and four, and suddenly they're a big power now in the a f C. So the birth of the Bills. Closing out seven Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. We are your hosts here on Special Teams. You have an idea for a future Special Teams episode, hit us up on Twitter at how About a Fresca. Mike is at Swollen Dome. We will have a new episode next week for you. In the meantime, catch us Monday through Friday on Fox Sports Radio tent p into two am on the East Coast, seven to eleven on

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