Three-Week Professionals: Inside the 1987 NFL Players' Strike

by Ted Kluck

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 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.

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2015

About the author

Ted Kluck writes on topics ranging from Mike Tyson to the Emergent Church. Ted has played professional indoor football, coached high school football, trained as a professional wrestler, served as a missionary, and taught writing courses at the college level.

Reviews

[Scott Parker · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the author obviously has a passion for football, the lack of information in this book about all of the NFL games played during just that three-week period was disappointing. In addition, the transitions between chapters were quite abrupt, leading to a general lack of flow in the writing. This is not a book I would recommend to even the biggest of diehard fans of professional football.

[Rachel Schmoyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was born in 1981 and football was always on in my house, but I didn’t follow it per se so I was lost in this book with all the name dropping. I only knew the most famous names. I loved the bits that talked about the lives of the replacement players and I had expected the whole book to be just their stories. But as an NFL watcher now I appreciated the look at the NFL’s past which helps me understand how we got to the crazy salaries and marketing of today.

As always, I enjoyed Kluck’s tight, descriptive writing.

[Randy Wojtasiak · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author and myself are very close in age. Some of the visuals about the game back then that he touched on brought back very vivid memories. Though not really that in-depth it was an enjoyable read. I would have read twice as much if it would have been offered.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ted Kluck the author, really did his research on the 1987 NFL Strike. This book was short but it was educational and a trip to read.

Through DVD's bought on the bootleg market by the author, you the reader were able to get a good picture of what it was like to be a replacement player in the last NFL Strike.

The best part of this book was Kluck's interviews with replacement players who were living out their dreams of playing in the NFL, coupled with the fact that these players were regular working Joes who had families to support.

I wish though that the book was longer and it had some stories on the Los Angeles Raiders replacement players. The photo on the front cover of this book was that of a replacement game between the Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs; but the only sentence in this book dedicated to the 1987 Raiders was of Bo Jackson and the famous touchdown run he had that year when he ran over Brian Bosworth at the Kingdome.

But as they say, this was Kluck's book. He wrote this book the way he wanted to write it. If I want to study the 1987 Los Angeles Raiders in depth I'll do it on my own time.

[David Barney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insight into the '87 NFL strike. This aspect of sports history has not been investigated. I appreciate the authors' insight and talking about some of the players that participated as replacement players.