Three Wild Weeks

My family lived in Denver at the time and at the height of the John Elway era. My friends and I thought it was a little weird to see strangers in our team’s uniforms and we were wondering what the replacement players or “scabs” as they were labeled, would play like. They looked like the Broncos, but after the first of the replacement games, a disastrous 40-10 loss to the Houston Oilers, we were certain they were not. After all, our team was the defending AFC Champions, and we knew Houston shouldn’t stand a chance at Mile High, right? Well, as it turned out, against the replacement players they did.

As the strike went on, more and more stories came out of the striking NFL players’ bizarre behavior (as some might put it) and it left us wondering what was going on. There were stories of striking players ripping up autographs and shouting at people attending the games. Wives of some of the striking players yelled at the replacement players during the practices from outside the practice facilities. Some striking players even laid down in front of vehicles trying to get into the team facilities. These stories were coming in from all over the league, and for a while it seemed like we would never see the real players again.

Of course we were young, (I was 14 at the time) but we never really understood why the players were so mad at the replacement guys. We were fans, so what did we know? The way we saw it, they were only taking the opportunity to play in place of those who didn’t want to. Some were guys who had been cut in training camps across the league. Some had been out of the league for some time. Others were guys right off the street who of course had some experience in football, but nothing to the level of the NFL.

All we wanted was the real players back. As time went by though, the “scabs” began to improve and soon all that mattered was that the guys in the uniform played for OUR team. We were becoming fans of Ken Karcher, Joe Dudek, and other guys we had never even heard of a month before. Sure, some of the regulars began crossing the picket line and played, but the majority of the others were still out. After a Monday night win against the hated Raiders in Mile High Stadium, everything started to come together. This was followed by another divisional win at Kansas City and suddenly our “new” team was rolling like our “old” team, but then…

The next week the “real” Broncos returned, along with the rest of the striking NFL players. We were glad to have our team back, but were also grateful to the men who filled in for them. Except for a few who were kept around, the replacement guys went back to their day jobs, knowing that might be the last time they would ever see an NFL playing field.

Our replacement Broncos went 2-1, helping the team solidify home-field advantage for the playoff run. The Houston Oilers would return for the divisional round of the playoffs and this time the REAL Broncos took it to ‘em, 34-10. The following week, the Cleveland Browns came to town for the AFC Championship “Part II”. This game was an incredible, back and forth affair that culminated with “The Fumble”. Our Broncos were back in the Super Bowl, and although the outcome of that game was not to our liking of course, the 1987 season was always about more than just one game.

In the end, we would remember that year for many things: another Broncos Super Bowl run, Jerry Rice scoring 23 touchdowns in 12 games, the Saints making their first playoff appearance, the unbelievable playoff performance from Anthony Carter of the Vikings, the explosion onto the NFL landscape of Brian Bosworth and Heisman winner Bo Jackson, and for three wild weeks in October.