A Cracked Shield
The 1982 NFL strike began on Tuesday, September 21, and lasted 77 days, ending on December 7th. During this time, no NFL games were played. The strike occurred because of the NFL Players Union demanded that a wage scale based on percentage of gross revenues be implemented. The NFLPA wanted the percentage to be 55 percent, though other demands were better pensions, health benefits, a minimum salary based on years served, and the establishment of a true free agency. According to the Los Angeles Times, the wage scale demand "dominated the negotiations."
-From 1982 NFL Strike, Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia
"And in other news, after nearly a month of strike, professional football is set to presume, although perhaps it would be more correct to say "unprofessional football". This weekend the NFLPA, the representative labor union for the NFL has announced the organization of two "All-star" games to be set on October 17th in RFK Stadium for the NFC and October 18th in our local Los Angeles Coliseum, home to the Raiders and the future Fighting Geese of the USFL.
The NFLPA has announced that there has been over 10,000 purchases since the announcement last Wednesday and the all-star games have seen strong endorsements from the AFL-CIO, leading Democratic lawmakers, and surprisingly a strong number of Hollywood stars who have announced their intention to view either game. These include Jack Nicholson, Ricardo Montalban, Loretta Swit, Burt Reynolds, and Farrah Fawcett as only a sample of among hundreds of celebrities who have stated their intent. This is most likely motivated by the failure of the Hollywood Strike two years ago which saw the halting of new benefits and the rolling back of union power within Hollywood."
-KCBS Broadcast, October 11th, 1982
Growing up you were never much of a Football fan. Baseball was the passion sport that the family shared and the NFL had only just started taking off by the time you left for Hollywood. It wasn't until Carrie began planning in the USFL that you watched football, though not with heavy interest and mainly at a couple of Raiders or Rams games along with Carrie to get a feel for the sport.
Tonight would be another night of engagement with the sport where instead of watching Mafia and Remington Steele, you were watching Monday Night Football of the AFC.
The family room was not very crowded with Debbie back at her house, and a disinterested Mary and Sarah playing in their room with most of the pets. Natalie laid on the couch, being given endless belly rubs and love by Carrie while Joseph sat on your lap, eyes glued and being super hyped since kicked off while his cat Tigger sat on the arm of the couch lazily.
"You think if it was yesterday we could have had a family thing?" You asked Carrie.
"Mary might like it but I don't think Sarah would be interested or be comfortable with the crowds." Carrie commented.
"Go, go, go! Fast!" Joseph cheered at the TV as one of the running backs was making their way to a touchdown, with Joseph cheering and clapping as he crossed the endzone. You started in wonder at the mini jock in the making.
"Besides, it'd be terrible optics for either of us to go." Carrie said, to which you raised an eyebrow. "A lot of people still hold a grudge for two years ago."
"That was the Union being a bunch of a-, dumb dumbs." You corrected, remembering your son's presence and not wanting another Fairy situation.
"True, but even still, lots of people are angry and your defiance helped tipped the scales, plus we made Star Wars while everyone was picketing in '75. If you had announced you would go, lots of the celebrities would have gotten refunds."
"What about you, everyone loves Carrie?" You pointed out. In spite of your controversies and numerous shares of critics and haters, it seemed like all of America loved Carrie O'Brian.
"I love Mommy!" Joseph agreed, making you both giggle with you handing off Joseph to sit carefully on Carrie's lap where he received lots of kisses as thanks.
"Honestly that would be even worse. The co-founder of the USFL supporting the NFL strike. I honestly wanted to endorse the strike from day one, but David said that if I did so it would ruin the strike's entire optics as the USFL sabotaging the NFL and derail their case." Carrie pointed out, which made a heavy amount of sense.
You nodded with a sigh. It was a shame you couldn't do much for the working man here as outside of their salary demand which seemed a bit overboard, everything else was sensible for a sports career. Fortunately it didn't seem like the NFLPA needed much of the help, as both the Coliseum and RFK were nearly fully booked, a fact which was shown happily by the ESPN and news cameras, and the reporters just loved to give interviews with lots of A-list celebrities in downtime, showing there was heavy momentum.
Over a million dollars was raised for the game from ticket sales along with an extra million in revenue from the ESPN deal, and with the coming weeks there would be ten million in donations, thus ensuring the strike was on.
Brandon Tartikoff was one very happy man. The launch of LucasTV had gone beyond his wildest expectations with the channel making a record amount of new subscribers with over 10 million in the first week, far outclassing HBO and Cinemax, though such was to be expected when you could get some of the best content on TV for only a dollar yearly. In this economy it was like being given a free computer.
Most of the LucasTV shows were dominating the Top 30 of the Neilsen Ratings, with Zeta Gundam making history in both reception and pure ratings. Even the kiddy cartoons from Hanna-Barbera were seen a level of praise and popularity not seen since Scooby-Doo. The only downside was that they were going to be at a hard loss from how cheap subscription was, but with Lucasfilms' billions they could run at a loss til 1990 and the merchandise from shows like Gundam, Macross, GI Joe and Luke Cage more than covered all of the channel's budget several times over.
But perhaps what came as a great blessing to boost the already rapid success of the channel was the NFL strike. While Baseball was still America's pasttime, Football was rapidly approaching to overtake it with the South already treating it as a secular religion for both college and professional play. Tens of millions watched the collective NFL games on Sunday. Without the NFL, those precious hours were now subject to shitty sports replacements like Canadian Football or bland reruns. America needed to fill the void, one that couldn't be easily done through other forms of leisure thanks to light wallets from Stagflation.
So in came Lucasfilms, offering a quality alternative through its many shows, but most importantly was the movie vault. After two weeks had passed, Brandon made an executive decision to scrap the Sunday schedules and have it be dominated most of the day by Lucasfilms movies. Beloved films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, John Henry and Tron would fill the slots from noon to seven, allowing Americans to see their favorites on the small screen once more. And what was the harm of paying just a single dollar for peak television.
Subscription had increased from the start of the strike at 12 million to 20 million and growing around Halloween. Those very same football fans would after a disaster season still want the void to be fixed, one that the USFL would fill, a solution that LucasTV would be involved in.
"Mr. President, would you care to comment on the ongoing strike?"
"Well, I feel it's a terrible situation all around and I feel that certain actors involved in the negotiations have not been conducting themselves in good faith to bring this strike to a speedy conclusion. Demands must be brought forth to a more realistic bargain and more constructive dialogue must be brought forth. Nancy and I's thoughts and prayers go out to the thousands of innocent workers whose job is caught in the crossfire."
"Will the White House take action to help with the talks?"
"I know many Americans believe that the federal government is all knowing and powerful, but we have limits for good reasons and it is not the federal government's role to interfere in labor disputes of the private sector that are not essential to the national economy. Not like I could order the Army and Marines to fill all 28 rosters anyways. Were this a public strike we would have taken action, but as such our hands our tied aside from offers of good faith arbitration from administration officials, which both sides have repeatedly rejected."
-White House press conference November 2nd, 1982
"Ugghhh."
"Quit whining and stop staring at the clock. What's done is done and no Football is not gonna ruin our thanksgiving." Heather Walton said to her husband David.
It was Thanksgiving day with the two hosting in their suburban Dallas home. Usually at this time, David would be glued to the TV with his son, watching the Dallas Cowboys, but the greed and stupidity of the players had killed the season and now it was very likely they wouldn't even get a Super Bowl at this rate with neither side budging.
Thus, David was now on kitchen duty at the urging of his wife whose tone with the request implied the rest of the holidays on the couch if he didn't comply.
"Sorry. It's just that, you know...I don't have a lot of interesting things these days, and football just brings a little bit of life to Sundays." David complained. Growing up, he was obsessed with football and was a star defensive player for his high school team. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to give him a college scholarship, and any chances of training to join the NFL or AFL were squashed with a Vietnam draft. It wasn't as if David was living a bad life, a loving wife, two kids and stability with a job at the telephone company were better than most of the world. But he had long accepted that adventure and spice were a thing of the past, Football helping him to relive some of the glory days and spice things up.
"Oh how you've had to suffer spending more time with your family." Heather said sarcastically.
David laughed, "Yeah I suppose Sundays are okay." They had been a bit more adventurous thanks to inflation calming down and did some neat things like going to the zoo, going to the state fair or spending a lot more time at the movies.
"Besides, we're gonna have football all year round with the USFL and we have Lucas, so won't miss any games."
"Yeah but I'll have to root for stupid Houston or Oklahoma. Who builds a football team in hell on Earth Arizona over football city!" David complained with Heather shaking her head.
"Alright, Mashed Potatoes are ready, anything else?" David requested.
"Nope, we're done."
"Seriously?" He exclaimed in shock. Thanksgiving prep wasn't finished until 7 usually at their House.
"Well I do have an extra pair of hands this year instead of lounging around in the living room or backyard." Heather emphasized, to which David chuckled nervously.
"Well, I guess I can lend a hand around eleven next year." He offered, to which Heather smiled.
"Good enough. Go spend time with the kids, I'll clean up and set the table."
David searched the house for a minute and was surprised to see all the Kids and a decent amount of the adults clustering around the TV in the living room where one of Lucasfilms'
Japanese cartoons was playing on the TV. He always found it odd how so many people were becoming so obsessed with them. Cartoons were kids stuff like Flintstones, they couldn't match the quality of MASH.
"Whatcha watching sport?" David asked of his son Conner.
"Mobile Suit Gundam, they're doing a marathon for people to catch up to Zeta and it's so awesome."
"It's even better than Star Wars!" David's daughter Margaret joined in, which was a huge shock to David as she idolized Carrie O'Brian and had tons of Princess Leia stuff.
"It's that good huh?" David didn't go out of his way to buy Paramount so he never watched Gundam but he heard so many co-workers gossip about it and seemed good enough to hook up many of his cousins. "Alright, let's see what all the fuss is about."
The next day David bought a Gundam VHS bundle for Black Friday.
Black Friday was absolute hell. The slashed prices made people lose all sense of reason and humanity with all retail stores turning into an unlocked zoo as people fought like animals to receive the best deals. The Black Friday of 1982 was no different, if anything it was more intense since the end of high inflation meant people were in a spend crazy mood to get some catharsis after three years of penny pinching.
The most interesting aspect though was sports stores, where most stores in the nation saw double or triple its usual customer base. Sure there were plenty of great deals for sports gear or outdoors equipment, but instead everyone was fighting like crazy to get merch of the newly formed USFL, especially the cities hosting the teams with new cities like Jacksonville and Phoenix seeing a heavy surge to fill in the void that was empty.
Yet even in NFL cities, there were many fans looking to jump ship, or at least declare loyalty to a new team.
"The Oilers have let us down too many times. First they fire Bum, then they let all of our best players go, they're wasting Earl Campbell's prime years, and Bud and the other jackass owners won't throw in the towel and let us get football back. If the NFL doesn't get its act back together I'm going to be the father of a Roughneck family." Said one interviewed customer at a north Houston Academy for the local news.
It's a story told time and time again with millions relating. The people were pissed for their lack of football, Sundays losing their luster and the hopes and dreams of half the nation being snuffed out with only two weeks of play. Tensions were reaching a boiling point.
"FUCK YOU, YOU GODDAMN MONEY-GRUBBING STUBBORN CUNTS!!! We're losing tens of millions in revenue because you won't reach a deal. Well if we don't get a month of football you can forget about Football on CBS again! Good luck getting a salary when no one in America watches your games!"
-Anonymous CBS executive.
"Joe, please for the love of God, tell me your daughter is going to sell the Lakers soon and go back to making movies?" Pleaded one of Joseph O'Brian's regulars in the Jumping Whale.
Joseph laughed at the question, it wasn't the first time and would be far from the last he'd be handed such a request, "Now why would I go and do that?"
"Cause the Knicks are getting their asses kicked, the Giants and Jets are dead and the Yankees choked last season!"
"Come on Chuck, the Lakers are part of the West, they hardly play the Knicks. My heart breaks just as much as yours but Carrie leaving aint gonna crap talent and shit management."
"Well do you have to cover a quarter of the Bar in Lakers stuff?" Indeed there was a section dedicated to autographed Lakers jerseys and other memorabilia.
"It's only about ten square feet and it makes some good money. Look Chuck, you want to have a good time watching sports and have a good team? Watch the USFL when it pops up and root for the Fighting Geese."
"Look Joe, your kids make the best movies in Hollywood, but that doesn't mean that you have to have half your soul be Californian. You gotta be local and loyal, root for the Generals."
"And support Donny's team? I'd rather root for the Red Sox."
New York Giants Defensive End Gary Jeter was not having a good season. First his leg gets sprained in game two, taking him out of the season, and then the mega strike happens with his team left to hang in the dust and with meager compensation while being shunned and shut out by the owners. All the Giants were just off doing their own things and with Gary's leg in a cast, he couldn't even do something fun like take a vacation or take up new hobbies, just spending his days miserably passing the time as a couch potato watching soap operas or binging the LucasTV commercials. At least now he was able to catch up on so many movies he missed during his time on the field.
Even when his leg had finally healed, there was still no movement from either side and there was a decent chance there might not even be a season. In a deep depression, Gary's mind wandered to dark action, though a ray of light seemed to shine down on his cloudy days with Carrie O'Brians announcement of the USFL and offering an open invite for any players to jump ship.
His contract with the Giants just so happened to expire this year and even if the playoffs were still held, Gary didn't think anything besides a Super Bowl ring could make such a crapsack season worth it. So the day after the USFL conference, he called his agent and directed him to find a way to have him jump ship to the USFL.
Gary's story was just one of a couple hundred NFL players who wanted a fresh start.
It is December 6th, there has been no professional football for eleven weeks. Football fans across America have grown angry and distressed, blaming both sides for this debacle and no longer caring about whose right or wrong, merely that football is played. College Football sees full stadiums and record high viewership to fill the void while the USFL is selling millions in merchandise and already a fraction of the season's tickets being sold to help fill the football void with this new and exciting spring league.
In Danton, Ohio, home of the great Hall of Fame, a hotel from the hall sees leaders from the NFLPA and all 28 owners sitting across from each other in a great 56 seat standoff. The ultimatum delivered by the Cable networks of shredding the current NFL contracts and the recent media deal for the USFL signed with ABC, ESPN and LucasTV has forced drastic action. No more delays, one way or another, a deal has to be made. No one can leave the hotel and negotiations are to continue nonstop. The strike must end.
"...The conclusion to the strike was a mixed affair for both parties. The NFLPA would receive a guarantee that $1.5 billion of NFL revenue would be spent on player salaries for the next five years. Other benefits were won including a higher playoff and training camp pay raise, a minimum salary based on years of play, increased medical, insurance, and retirement benefits, and a severance pay system. However, in return for the concessions the current free agent system would remain unchanged thanks to fears by owners of a busted draft system due to competition from the USFL. The NFLPA would promise to continue legal challenges against the free agency scheme in court.
The 1982 Season would resume with weeks 14-17 being played as scheduled and the Playoffs to contain the same schedule. Instead of the normal playoff format, a 8 team tournament bracket would be created in the same style as the NBA with the eight best teams from each conference to face each other in a traditional tournament with the winners of each conference to play in the Super Bowl.
Most controversially was the NFL instituting the immediate firing of all players who participated in the All-Star games during the Strike as a breach of contract with said players also being barred from employment within the NFL for five years, effectively ending their NFL careers. The move received widespread condemnation and was treated with heavy derision from both fanbases and the general public while the NFLPA was under heavy criticism from players for failing to protect those who partook in the All-Star game. All 80 of the NFL players who partook in the All-Star games would be hired by the USFL, further enhancing the league's popularity."
-From 1982 NFL Strike, Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia
1982 NFL Standings
NFC
- St. Louis Cardinals 5-1
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4-2
- Chicago Bears 4-2
- Detroit Lions 4-2
- Washington Redskins 4-2
- New York Giants 4-2
- Green Bay Packers 3-3
- New Orleans Saints 2-4
- Philadelphia Eagles 2-4
- Dallas Cowboys 2-4
- San Francisco 49ers 1-5
- Los Angeles Rams 1-5
- Minnesota Vikings 1-5
- Atlanta Falcons 0-6
AFC
- San Diego Chargers 6-0
- Cleveland Browns 5-1
- Denver Broncos 5-1
- Pittsburgh Steelers 5-1
- Miami Dolphins 4-2
- New York Jets 4-2
- Baltimore Colts 4-2
- New England Raiders 4-2
- Los Angeles Raiders 3-3
- Houston Oilers 2-4
- Cincinnati Bengals 2-4
- Kansas City Chiefs 1-5
- Buffalo Bills 1-5
- Seattle Seahawks 0-6
1982 NFL Playoffs
First Round
NFC
6 New York Giants 41 vs 3 Chicago Bears 40
7 Green bay Packers 7 vs
2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35
5 Washington Redskins 23 vs
4 Detroit Lions 45
8 New Orleans Saints 10 vs
1 St. Louis Cardinals 49
AFC
6 New York Jets 28 vs 3 Denver Broncos 13
8 New England Patriots 55 vs 1 Dan Diego Chargers 40
5 Miami Dolphins 30 vs
4 Pittsburgh Steelers 34
7 Baltimore Colts 21 vs
2 Cleveland Browns 27
Second Round
NFC
6 New York Giants 9 vs
2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31
4 Detroit Lions 14 vs 1 St. Louis Cardinals 10
AFC
8 New England Patriots 6 vs
6 New York Jets 21
4 Pittsburgh Steelers 12 vs
2 Cleveland Browns 17
Champsionships
NFC
4 Detroit Lions 28 vs 2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20
AFC
6 New York Jets 48 vs
2 Cleveland Browns 56
Super Bowl XVII
4 Detroit Lions 14 vs
2 Cleveland Browns 42
"Thanks again for giving me a ticket Bruce." Todd said with a heavy yawn.
"No problem, always happy to go to games with my favorite brother-in-law."
In truth, Bruce had actually invited Todd to help keep an eye on Joseph who could be pretty active at times. It also helped that Todd had taken Joseph to a Dodgers game before and they had a great time. It was a great help since Carrie was staying at home with Debbie and the girls for a Girls Night.
"Are Spartans games like this?" You asked, as Todd was a regular with his friends at USC.
"They're pretty high quality all around but we don't usually get a blow out this big unless it's an out of conference game."
While the game started out evenly with both defenses performing well in the 1st half, something must have lit a fire in the Cleveland locker room as they came back in the second half roaring with a 93 yard return Touchdown and then went on to score 35 points in the second half while denying the Lions, completely dominating the Lions in every category. Sure it must have been amazing to see for Browns fans, but to you it was above average compared to Lakers showtime.
"How'd you like it Joe?" Todd asked Joseph in the back.
"Cool! Super good fun!" Joseph exclaimed happily, still on an energy high of staying up late and perhaps one too many sips of soda.
One would think this would be the mark of Joseph being a football fanatic, but honestly he was this crazy with any and all sports. He thought Lakers games were super awesome and loved meeting all the players in the locker room, he had an absolute blast with Dodgers games. And it didn't even have to be LA, he would be super invested watching a random sports game during channel flipping. Lord only knows how he'll react to the upcoming Olympics.
"Tanks Daddy for game. Love you!" Joseph said sweetly.
You smiled heavily at that. Sure you may not understand or relate too well to Joseph's passion and the Super Bowl wasn't your most exciting live event, but it made Joseph happy and that made it a good night.
You wonder how Cleveland was celebrating their first Super Bowl win.
"
FUCK DE-TROIT! FUCK DE-TROIT!" Was one of the many expletives and chants yelled by the Cleveland Browns fans with downtown Cleveland becoming a literal party city as the rusty city broke out into a frenzy of celebrations.
Among the various NFL fanbases, Browns fans were considered to be the most fanatic and loyal. Browns Stadium was always packed with the "Dawgs" as they called themselves with the Cleveland Pack sticking by their team through best and worst, through rain, sleet or snow. The Cavaliers and Indians may have been respectable teams, but Cleveland was by far a football city. Such was the case that when the NFL began playing again, there were severe liquor shortages for a week and the Brown's playoff run completely erased any negativity towards the Strike. In fact, some Browns fans were actually thankful for the Strike in playing a role to push Cleveland to the Super Bowl.
During the three hours the Super Bowl was played, those who drove and walked down the Cleveland streets would note how quiet and empty the city was as everyone was at home, at a friend's house, or at many bars and restaraunts to watch the game. When the game clock struck zero, a roaring chorus of cheers consumed Cleveland with many rushing to the streets in glee.
What took place on the night of January 30th, 1983 was a night of ecstasy and jubilation that would make mardi-gras look tame. Heavy chanting and impromptu rallies, breakdancing and flash concerts, heavy consumption of food and drinks, parties galore that lasted til sunrise, and the usage of many rather illicit substances. For what is surely coincidental reasons, October-November would set a record for the most babies born in Cleveland.
After decades of struggle, the Cleveland Browns were Super Bowl Champions. It didn't matter if they got to the playoffs after only six games and played in a dense bracket that included half of the NFL. They didn't care that many of the fans considered Super Bowl 17 to be illegitimate and Cleveland's first Lombardi to be hollow. The Cleveland Browns were Super Bowl Champions, and for Northeast Ohio all was right with the world.
