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Striking Back In Time
Spagnola: History Suggests Ugliness Has Only Just Begun
IRVING, Texas - They said World War I was "the war to end all wars."
Twenty years later World War II began.
Then in 1987, there was a part of me that thought the NFL players strike was the strike to end all NFL strikes and labor disputes, understanding then how the riff between players and owners, along with that between the players and players, first fractured this league and then a number of teams, including your Dallas Cowboys.
Yet here we are, 23½ years later and we're back at it again. Oh, technically this is not a players strike since the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement expired without both sides agreeing to a new contract. But what, decertification? That's merely a euphemism for a walkout, since the NFL Players Association knew when it decertified last Friday that the owners, who were angling for yet another extension at the time, would have no other choice but to issue a lockout.
So yes, here we are again, the week the NFL stood still, seven days and counting. Wonder if the NFLPA will put up a new counter, like the one that had been up there for the previous couple of months, counting down the days, hours and minutes to "a lockout"? Oh wait, I'm badly mistaken, go to the website. Very cleverly the NFLPA has this for a home page: Error 404: Football Not Found. Please be patient as we work on resolving this. We are sorry for the inconvenience, followed by a link to lockout.com, with a rudimentary sketch of what its home page would have looked like, as if the players association has no culpability in what is taking place.
Do we ever learn?
The 1987 strike began on Sept. 22 with the Cowboys 1-1 at the time, coming off a 7-9 season in 1986 - their first losing season since 1964 - thanks almost entirely to quarterback Danny White fracturing his wrist in Game 9 with the Cowboys 6-2 and tied for first in the NFC East with the New York Giants. And let me tell you, those were an ugly four weeks in league history, having to cancel Game 3 of the season and playing the next three with replacement players, or "scab players" as they were less than affectionately labeled, and since those games actually counted, reducing the year to a 15-game season.
But think about it? How many really remember those dark days in the NFL? Nearly half the owners weren't owners back then. A 30-year-old player today, someone like 32-year old Drew Brees, was all of nine years old back then. He has no clue what took place, even if he is from football-mad Texas. Judging from the Cowboys' year-end roster, counting IR and practice squad players, eight guys weren't even born yet; 13 were no more than a year old; 20 no more than five; and only three guys, and that includes Chris Greisen, who was on the roster for only the final week of the season, were at least 10.
So the players have no clue what took place during the '87 strike or how the public backlash hit the players the hardest.
And you guys? My guess is unless you were at least like old enough to drive, say 16, you were not acutely aware of what was going on either because at 16, meaning you would have had to have been born in 1971, your world was pretty darn narrow. That's a lot of fans now with no clue, either.
Well, let me tell you, this was not a pretty time, not out here at The Ranch where the players formed picket lines on the sidewalk just outside the entrance to the complex, or around the league where picket lines were posted at every team's complex, even in some instances with the help of the AFL-CIO, those rabble-rousing labor watchdogs, as the league carried on with teams of replacement players.
Look, in Kansas City, I mean conservative Kansas City, Missouri, Chiefs players Dino Hackett and Paul Coffman walked the picket line waving unloaded shotguns. Jack Del Rio, then a linebacker with the Chiefs who went on to play for the Cowboys and currently is the head coach in Jacksonville, actually was so agitated he got into an ugly wrestling match with Chiefs scout and former longtime and highly respected receiver Otis Taylor, who was escorting a replacement player into the team's complex.
Bad? Hah, wait. In cozy Green Bay, players were firing bottle rockets over the practice field fences, trying to disrupt the replacement player workouts. In Anaheim, the back window of a van carrying Rams replacement players into the complex was shattered. The Patriots threw eggs and beer bottles at replacement players being dropped off at the hotel. There were reports of Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau being spit upon and getting in fights with teammates as he crossed the picket line.
And the Cowboys, oh my, what took place for four weeks had as much to do with the continuing demise of a proud franchise that had strung together 20 consecutive winnings seasons as White's wrist, the club never, ever the same under Tom Landry.
As if it were almost yesterday, I can remember standing as a reporter on this side of the picket line when defensive tackle Randy White, accompanied by fellow DT backup Don Smerek, arrived that one morning in his pickup truck, ready to report to work. To (aghast) cross the picket line. He had already informed his teammates he had no use for this strike, and he wouldn't participate. In fact, he sent his resignation letter to the union.
Well, there was a near confrontation out front, several of the players, including Tony Dorsett, who was yelling "Captain Scab" at White, stood in front of White's truck, blocking his path. Randy sat there for what seemed like an eternity, but likely only 30 seconds, stewing. You could see his face turning red. Well, as I remember the confrontation, White, with the clutch disengaged, began revving his engine, louder and louder. Some old dude from the Valley Ranch neighborhood joining the players on the picket line bumped White's truck with one of the signs.
About at that point, White, in gear now, popped the clutch, his truck lurching forward, with Dorsett & Co., scattering sideways to safety. Later Dorsett would say of his teammate of 11 seasons, "I hope he's a better captain for the Scabs than he was for us." And linebacker Jeff Rohr arrogantly claimed, "I'm sure there is going to be a few lap dogs," referring to players crossing the picket line. "I'll forgive them but I won't forget them."
Security director Larry Wansley, who watched the confrontation with "The Manster" with amusement from the side, knew nothing physical would occur. He told me later, "None of them wanted to commit suicide."
There were threats the 20 or so players actually walking the picket line would block the buses carrying the replacement players in for practice. And when Landry heard of the threats to stall the players reporting for the 8:30 a.m. meeting, he said, "They have a hard enough time making my 9 o'clock meeting," suggesting very few would wake up in time to form a protest line.
When told the players vowed to show up in time the next day, by 7 a.m., Landry quipped, "I could pick out a few that won't make it."
Instead, the picketing Cowboys players tried to intimidate the replacement players when they left after practice, throwing eggs at the bus and pounding it with their fists and signs. Brutal.
One afternoon a frustrated Tex Schramm, president and general manager and one of the league's foremost proponents of using replacement players to break the strike and make sure the show went on, walked out of the building and through the parking lot to talk with the picketing players. For an hour Tex stood his ground, answering the player questions and debating them. His message to them was they had better make sure the NFLPA was telling them the truth, that there was no way they were going to win with a strike, only lose a whole lot of money.
And now, what, just more than 23 years later, everyone is clamoring to make a big deal of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones confronting the player executive committee in an early March meeting, grinding his fists together, basically telling them the owners were not going to cave? Come on, as labor unrest goes, compared to those strike days of the '60s and '70s I grew up in, this is pretty lame. That mean, ol' Jerry.
Well, as the story goes back in 1987, Randy wasn't the only Cowboys White or player to cross the picket line. Danny White did so, too. And because several players, not just Danny and Randy, had annuities, some as much as $3 million, all dependent on uninterrupted service to the team, they were sent letters explaining how the annuities would dissolve if they remained on strike.
So one by one, these guys crossed, guys such as Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Mike Renfro, Everson Walls and … yes, Dorsett, too, hat in hand after the stink he had made since his annuity was worth $3 million. At least he had that much good sense. Danny White did since he was guaranteed $750,000 if he started eight games. Randy, too, since he had a $3 million annuity. The starters who did not cross the picket line lost an average of $20,877 a week.
By the time the strike entered the fourth week - heading toward the third replacement game - 21 Cowboys on the 45-man roster had crossed the picket line. League-wide, more than 200 had done so. Only then did the NFLPA cave.
Why?
Causes are great, but no one likes to lose money, just as I did not that summer of '74 when the union workers at the steel door factory where I worked during summers to make money for college went out on strike, the guys hooping and yelling when midnight struck as the contract expired. They partied. Me, I was hacked off. I needed the money for college, and didn't have time for their cause since I wasn't going to benefit one iota from these guys striking for basically higher pay. But there was I, putting in my required shift on the picket line, the 3-11 one as I remember with mosquitoes seemingly multiplying by the minute outside the factory fences, having to listen to the barbs being shouted our way by those driving by, one guy screaming while looking right at me, "Why don't you get your (ahem) back to work." Believe me, that's exactly what I wanted.
So when you guys ask, when will all this get settled, to me it might not until players start losing money. Then you find out how committed you are to the cause, which isn't much of a cause when the majority of the players with three years experience are making at least a half-mil a season. Now the only money going unpaid at this point are roster bonuses and deferred signing bonuses owed the first of the league year, along with workout bonuses and potentially per diem payments during training camp if this stretches out that long. Anyone bother to ask DeMarcus Ware if he's happy not getting his $500,000 roster bonus already or Dez Bryant the $1 million deferred portion of his rookie signing bonus due already?
Or better yet, how much stomach for the fight do the some 500 potential free agents out there if the previous salary cap rules are resumed have for the fight? These guys don't even know where they are working next, guys such as Marcus Spears and Gerald Sensabaugh and Stephen Bowen. Or worse, if they will be working. And on top of that, say a guy has a $5 million base salary, not uncommon these days. You know how much he would forfeit for the good of the cause each week there is no game? Try $294,000. And if you make a piddling $1 million base? Like $117,000. Then multiply that by two or three times. And they would be willing to forfeit that in this economy? With the money these guys are making, and knowing, unlike owners who can own for as long as they choose, the life span of their playing careers is a very finite number? Kidding me?
And please, Adrian Peterson, you obviously left college way too soon. There's a history class or two, even Oklahoma offers, you must have missed along the way.
Look, here is all I know that happened at the conclusion (Oct. 15) of the 1987, 24-day strike. The Cowboys would lose six of their final 10 games, finishing 7-8, out of the playoffs for the second consecutive season and third time in four years. Starting tackle Phil Pozderac, still angered over his contract, never returned. He retired from the game, leaving rookie Kevin Gogan to make his first NFL start against … Reggie White. Defensive tackle Danny Noonan, the Cowboys' first-round draft choice, never recovered from this false start to his NFL career, first staging a 43-day contract holdout that cost him all of training camp and the first game of the season, and then another four weeks during the strike. Talk about not ready for prime time.
Dorsett trade rumors to Denver then surfaced, and eventually what should have been the two-headed backfield monster of Dorsett and Herschel Walker imploded, the pouty Dorsett granted his wish, getting traded to the Broncos after the season. Plus, when Dorsett actually played in the final replacement game, that Monday night, nationally-televised 13-7 loss to the Redskins scrubs before 60,415 at Texas Stadium that was the impetus for the movie The Replacements, the future Hall of Fame running back was booed by his own people when Danny White handed off to him the first time, like each step of the way louder and louder, and then when he scored the Cowboys only touchdown.
Former second-round draft choice Victor Scott mysteriously was placed on non-football illness, then eventually reportedly spotted in a drug rehab facility. The Cowboys' third straight home game was blacked out on television because of their inability to sell out the games. And Philadelphia head coach Buddy Ryan, true to his promise, rubbed in a 41-22 beating of the Cowboys the first game back by unnecessarily scoring a last-second touchdown as retribution for Landry calling an end-around on the first play of replacement game No. 2 against the Eagles that Kelvin Edwards took 62 yards for a touchdown. Buddy had said beforehand, "My goal is to be winning 40-0 with three seconds left and run for a touchdown off a fake field goal."
Well, almost. With 11 seconds left, and up 34-22, to the delight of The Vet faithful Ryan had Randall Cunningham fake as if he was going to kneel out the clock at the Cowboys 33 only to rise and throw deep to Mike Quick, who was interfered with by rookie corner Ron Francis in the end zone, placing the ball at the one. And with no time remaining Keith Byars runs in for the rub-in touchdown.
A whole lot of ugliness.
So all I'm saying is if history teaches us anything, brace yourself. There is going to be a whole lot of bull to put up with while the two sides figure out how to divvy up 9 BILLION DOLLARS and put in place a system that insulates the league from the economic disasters befalling our states, our educational systems, other leagues and many a business out there.
Jones backlash. Players calling NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a liar. Players acting indignant upon receiving the recent letter from Goodell. Animosity growing faster than the spring weeks.
Hey, we have only just begun.
Spagnola: History Suggests Ugliness Has Only Just Begun
IRVING, Texas - They said World War I was "the war to end all wars."
Twenty years later World War II began.
Then in 1987, there was a part of me that thought the NFL players strike was the strike to end all NFL strikes and labor disputes, understanding then how the riff between players and owners, along with that between the players and players, first fractured this league and then a number of teams, including your Dallas Cowboys.
Yet here we are, 23½ years later and we're back at it again. Oh, technically this is not a players strike since the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement expired without both sides agreeing to a new contract. But what, decertification? That's merely a euphemism for a walkout, since the NFL Players Association knew when it decertified last Friday that the owners, who were angling for yet another extension at the time, would have no other choice but to issue a lockout.
So yes, here we are again, the week the NFL stood still, seven days and counting. Wonder if the NFLPA will put up a new counter, like the one that had been up there for the previous couple of months, counting down the days, hours and minutes to "a lockout"? Oh wait, I'm badly mistaken, go to the website. Very cleverly the NFLPA has this for a home page: Error 404: Football Not Found. Please be patient as we work on resolving this. We are sorry for the inconvenience, followed by a link to lockout.com, with a rudimentary sketch of what its home page would have looked like, as if the players association has no culpability in what is taking place.
Do we ever learn?
The 1987 strike began on Sept. 22 with the Cowboys 1-1 at the time, coming off a 7-9 season in 1986 - their first losing season since 1964 - thanks almost entirely to quarterback Danny White fracturing his wrist in Game 9 with the Cowboys 6-2 and tied for first in the NFC East with the New York Giants. And let me tell you, those were an ugly four weeks in league history, having to cancel Game 3 of the season and playing the next three with replacement players, or "scab players" as they were less than affectionately labeled, and since those games actually counted, reducing the year to a 15-game season.
But think about it? How many really remember those dark days in the NFL? Nearly half the owners weren't owners back then. A 30-year-old player today, someone like 32-year old Drew Brees, was all of nine years old back then. He has no clue what took place, even if he is from football-mad Texas. Judging from the Cowboys' year-end roster, counting IR and practice squad players, eight guys weren't even born yet; 13 were no more than a year old; 20 no more than five; and only three guys, and that includes Chris Greisen, who was on the roster for only the final week of the season, were at least 10.
So the players have no clue what took place during the '87 strike or how the public backlash hit the players the hardest.
And you guys? My guess is unless you were at least like old enough to drive, say 16, you were not acutely aware of what was going on either because at 16, meaning you would have had to have been born in 1971, your world was pretty darn narrow. That's a lot of fans now with no clue, either.
Well, let me tell you, this was not a pretty time, not out here at The Ranch where the players formed picket lines on the sidewalk just outside the entrance to the complex, or around the league where picket lines were posted at every team's complex, even in some instances with the help of the AFL-CIO, those rabble-rousing labor watchdogs, as the league carried on with teams of replacement players.
Look, in Kansas City, I mean conservative Kansas City, Missouri, Chiefs players Dino Hackett and Paul Coffman walked the picket line waving unloaded shotguns. Jack Del Rio, then a linebacker with the Chiefs who went on to play for the Cowboys and currently is the head coach in Jacksonville, actually was so agitated he got into an ugly wrestling match with Chiefs scout and former longtime and highly respected receiver Otis Taylor, who was escorting a replacement player into the team's complex.
Bad? Hah, wait. In cozy Green Bay, players were firing bottle rockets over the practice field fences, trying to disrupt the replacement player workouts. In Anaheim, the back window of a van carrying Rams replacement players into the complex was shattered. The Patriots threw eggs and beer bottles at replacement players being dropped off at the hotel. There were reports of Jets defensive end Mark Gastineau being spit upon and getting in fights with teammates as he crossed the picket line.
And the Cowboys, oh my, what took place for four weeks had as much to do with the continuing demise of a proud franchise that had strung together 20 consecutive winnings seasons as White's wrist, the club never, ever the same under Tom Landry.
As if it were almost yesterday, I can remember standing as a reporter on this side of the picket line when defensive tackle Randy White, accompanied by fellow DT backup Don Smerek, arrived that one morning in his pickup truck, ready to report to work. To (aghast) cross the picket line. He had already informed his teammates he had no use for this strike, and he wouldn't participate. In fact, he sent his resignation letter to the union.
Well, there was a near confrontation out front, several of the players, including Tony Dorsett, who was yelling "Captain Scab" at White, stood in front of White's truck, blocking his path. Randy sat there for what seemed like an eternity, but likely only 30 seconds, stewing. You could see his face turning red. Well, as I remember the confrontation, White, with the clutch disengaged, began revving his engine, louder and louder. Some old dude from the Valley Ranch neighborhood joining the players on the picket line bumped White's truck with one of the signs.
About at that point, White, in gear now, popped the clutch, his truck lurching forward, with Dorsett & Co., scattering sideways to safety. Later Dorsett would say of his teammate of 11 seasons, "I hope he's a better captain for the Scabs than he was for us." And linebacker Jeff Rohr arrogantly claimed, "I'm sure there is going to be a few lap dogs," referring to players crossing the picket line. "I'll forgive them but I won't forget them."
Security director Larry Wansley, who watched the confrontation with "The Manster" with amusement from the side, knew nothing physical would occur. He told me later, "None of them wanted to commit suicide."
There were threats the 20 or so players actually walking the picket line would block the buses carrying the replacement players in for practice. And when Landry heard of the threats to stall the players reporting for the 8:30 a.m. meeting, he said, "They have a hard enough time making my 9 o'clock meeting," suggesting very few would wake up in time to form a protest line.
When told the players vowed to show up in time the next day, by 7 a.m., Landry quipped, "I could pick out a few that won't make it."
Instead, the picketing Cowboys players tried to intimidate the replacement players when they left after practice, throwing eggs at the bus and pounding it with their fists and signs. Brutal.
One afternoon a frustrated Tex Schramm, president and general manager and one of the league's foremost proponents of using replacement players to break the strike and make sure the show went on, walked out of the building and through the parking lot to talk with the picketing players. For an hour Tex stood his ground, answering the player questions and debating them. His message to them was they had better make sure the NFLPA was telling them the truth, that there was no way they were going to win with a strike, only lose a whole lot of money.
And now, what, just more than 23 years later, everyone is clamoring to make a big deal of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones confronting the player executive committee in an early March meeting, grinding his fists together, basically telling them the owners were not going to cave? Come on, as labor unrest goes, compared to those strike days of the '60s and '70s I grew up in, this is pretty lame. That mean, ol' Jerry.
Well, as the story goes back in 1987, Randy wasn't the only Cowboys White or player to cross the picket line. Danny White did so, too. And because several players, not just Danny and Randy, had annuities, some as much as $3 million, all dependent on uninterrupted service to the team, they were sent letters explaining how the annuities would dissolve if they remained on strike.
So one by one, these guys crossed, guys such as Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Mike Renfro, Everson Walls and … yes, Dorsett, too, hat in hand after the stink he had made since his annuity was worth $3 million. At least he had that much good sense. Danny White did since he was guaranteed $750,000 if he started eight games. Randy, too, since he had a $3 million annuity. The starters who did not cross the picket line lost an average of $20,877 a week.
By the time the strike entered the fourth week - heading toward the third replacement game - 21 Cowboys on the 45-man roster had crossed the picket line. League-wide, more than 200 had done so. Only then did the NFLPA cave.
Why?
Causes are great, but no one likes to lose money, just as I did not that summer of '74 when the union workers at the steel door factory where I worked during summers to make money for college went out on strike, the guys hooping and yelling when midnight struck as the contract expired. They partied. Me, I was hacked off. I needed the money for college, and didn't have time for their cause since I wasn't going to benefit one iota from these guys striking for basically higher pay. But there was I, putting in my required shift on the picket line, the 3-11 one as I remember with mosquitoes seemingly multiplying by the minute outside the factory fences, having to listen to the barbs being shouted our way by those driving by, one guy screaming while looking right at me, "Why don't you get your (ahem) back to work." Believe me, that's exactly what I wanted.
So when you guys ask, when will all this get settled, to me it might not until players start losing money. Then you find out how committed you are to the cause, which isn't much of a cause when the majority of the players with three years experience are making at least a half-mil a season. Now the only money going unpaid at this point are roster bonuses and deferred signing bonuses owed the first of the league year, along with workout bonuses and potentially per diem payments during training camp if this stretches out that long. Anyone bother to ask DeMarcus Ware if he's happy not getting his $500,000 roster bonus already or Dez Bryant the $1 million deferred portion of his rookie signing bonus due already?
Or better yet, how much stomach for the fight do the some 500 potential free agents out there if the previous salary cap rules are resumed have for the fight? These guys don't even know where they are working next, guys such as Marcus Spears and Gerald Sensabaugh and Stephen Bowen. Or worse, if they will be working. And on top of that, say a guy has a $5 million base salary, not uncommon these days. You know how much he would forfeit for the good of the cause each week there is no game? Try $294,000. And if you make a piddling $1 million base? Like $117,000. Then multiply that by two or three times. And they would be willing to forfeit that in this economy? With the money these guys are making, and knowing, unlike owners who can own for as long as they choose, the life span of their playing careers is a very finite number? Kidding me?
And please, Adrian Peterson, you obviously left college way too soon. There's a history class or two, even Oklahoma offers, you must have missed along the way.
Look, here is all I know that happened at the conclusion (Oct. 15) of the 1987, 24-day strike. The Cowboys would lose six of their final 10 games, finishing 7-8, out of the playoffs for the second consecutive season and third time in four years. Starting tackle Phil Pozderac, still angered over his contract, never returned. He retired from the game, leaving rookie Kevin Gogan to make his first NFL start against … Reggie White. Defensive tackle Danny Noonan, the Cowboys' first-round draft choice, never recovered from this false start to his NFL career, first staging a 43-day contract holdout that cost him all of training camp and the first game of the season, and then another four weeks during the strike. Talk about not ready for prime time.
Dorsett trade rumors to Denver then surfaced, and eventually what should have been the two-headed backfield monster of Dorsett and Herschel Walker imploded, the pouty Dorsett granted his wish, getting traded to the Broncos after the season. Plus, when Dorsett actually played in the final replacement game, that Monday night, nationally-televised 13-7 loss to the Redskins scrubs before 60,415 at Texas Stadium that was the impetus for the movie The Replacements, the future Hall of Fame running back was booed by his own people when Danny White handed off to him the first time, like each step of the way louder and louder, and then when he scored the Cowboys only touchdown.
Former second-round draft choice Victor Scott mysteriously was placed on non-football illness, then eventually reportedly spotted in a drug rehab facility. The Cowboys' third straight home game was blacked out on television because of their inability to sell out the games. And Philadelphia head coach Buddy Ryan, true to his promise, rubbed in a 41-22 beating of the Cowboys the first game back by unnecessarily scoring a last-second touchdown as retribution for Landry calling an end-around on the first play of replacement game No. 2 against the Eagles that Kelvin Edwards took 62 yards for a touchdown. Buddy had said beforehand, "My goal is to be winning 40-0 with three seconds left and run for a touchdown off a fake field goal."
Well, almost. With 11 seconds left, and up 34-22, to the delight of The Vet faithful Ryan had Randall Cunningham fake as if he was going to kneel out the clock at the Cowboys 33 only to rise and throw deep to Mike Quick, who was interfered with by rookie corner Ron Francis in the end zone, placing the ball at the one. And with no time remaining Keith Byars runs in for the rub-in touchdown.
A whole lot of ugliness.
So all I'm saying is if history teaches us anything, brace yourself. There is going to be a whole lot of bull to put up with while the two sides figure out how to divvy up 9 BILLION DOLLARS and put in place a system that insulates the league from the economic disasters befalling our states, our educational systems, other leagues and many a business out there.
Jones backlash. Players calling NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a liar. Players acting indignant upon receiving the recent letter from Goodell. Animosity growing faster than the spring weeks.
Hey, we have only just begun.