Not available to order
Publication date:
06 August 2015Length of book:
176 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9781442241558
In 1987 the players of the National Football League went on strike, demanding better pay and the right to seek free agency. Determined to keep the league going, team owners pulled replacements from wherever they could be found, from the semi-pro leagues to bar stools, in order to create makeshift teams. For three weeks, “regular” men—truck drivers, school teachers, stockbrokers—were able to put on NFL helmets and jerseys, play in professional stadiums, and live their dreams. The replacements had to dodge thrown food and endure catcalls while they played in nearly empty stadiums, but for three weeks they could call themselves professional football players.
Ultimately, the replacements’ days as professional athletes were all but forgotten by fans and the league. Ted Kluck changes that in Three-Week Professionals: Inside the 1987 NFL Players’ Strike, sharing the stories of the replacements alongside the strike experiences of NFL veterans. The innocence and joy experienced by the replacements stand in stark contrast to the high-stakes negotiations being waged by striking NFL players, negotiations that would spike the pay scale and change the face of the NFL.
Three-Week Professionals includes original interviews with both the replacement players and the professionals who went on strike, bringing to life these brief but unusual days of football. Football fans and sports historians alike will find this book a fascinating glimpse into three of the strangest weeks in the NFL—and come to realize the impact those weeks had on the world’s most lucrative sports league.
Ultimately, the replacements’ days as professional athletes were all but forgotten by fans and the league. Ted Kluck changes that in Three-Week Professionals: Inside the 1987 NFL Players’ Strike, sharing the stories of the replacements alongside the strike experiences of NFL veterans. The innocence and joy experienced by the replacements stand in stark contrast to the high-stakes negotiations being waged by striking NFL players, negotiations that would spike the pay scale and change the face of the NFL.
Three-Week Professionals includes original interviews with both the replacement players and the professionals who went on strike, bringing to life these brief but unusual days of football. Football fans and sports historians alike will find this book a fascinating glimpse into three of the strangest weeks in the NFL—and come to realize the impact those weeks had on the world’s most lucrative sports league.
In Three-Week Professionals, Ted Kluck pulls back the curtain on a time that the NFL would like everyone to forget about: the 1987 players strike and the use of replacement players for three games. For those of us who remember that time, the book takes us back to a simpler time in sports when there was no NFL Network or 24-hour sports coverage on television or the Internet. For readers who are too young to recall the ‘87 strike themselves it will open their eyes to a disturbing chapter in NFL history. By viewing game footage from that three-week period and interviewing players who actually played in the replacement games, Kluck pieces together the long-forgotten events of October 1987 and sheds new light on the effects the games had on those who played, and those who walked the picket line.