The B Team

THE B TEAM

Replacement players remember the 1987 season

by Adam Czech

W

hen Kevin Fitzgerald signed with the Green Bay Packers, he had no idea what a seven route was.

He’d never caught a pass or played a snap of offense in his life, actually.

But during his first practice as a tight end for one of the most storied franchises in the NFL, Fitzgerald wasn’t going to let those minor details slow him down.

Fitzgerald signed with the Packers as a replacement players when NFL players went on strike following the second week of the 1987 season. He joined 44 other replacement Packers on a sunny fall day in late September for the new team’s first practice. It was a roster of new faces, all trying to make the most of a unique opportunity to fulfill their NFL dreams.

The 6’3”, 235-pound Fitzgerald was a standout defensive end at Wisconsin-Eau Claire. But when he didn’t make an NFL roster, he returned to Eau Claire with teammate and friend Lee Weigel as an assistant coach.

When NFL players went on strike, Fitzgerald and Weigel saw an opportunity. They called Packers personnel director Tom Braatz and asked for a tryout. Braatz said the roster was full, but thanked them for the call. The duo persisted, convincing Braatz to let them drive to Green Bay at their own expense for a tryout.

The pair of NFL hopefuls climbed into Weigel’s Caprice Classic and set off for Lambeau Field. They stayed overnight at Weigel’s family farm in Marshfield, WI along the way.

Once Fitzgerald and Weigel reached Lambeau, the tryout didn’t consist of much. Nobody timed them in the 40-yard dash or counted how often they bench pressed 225 pounds. The duo mostly caught passes thrown by a member of the Packers personnel staff.

“The guy couldn’t throw at all,” Fitzgerald said.

“I was making one-handed catches, twisting catches,

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PACKERS PAST

LABOR STRIFE LEADS TO STRIKE On the surface, 1987 looks like just another forgettable season among many for the Packers in the 1980s. But the more you dig into it, the more fascinating it becomes––especially when viewed in light of the NFL’s recent labor strife.

The Packers’ problems in 1987 began long before the strike.

A sexual assault accusation led to All-Pro receiver James Lofton’s trade to the Raiders. Cornerback Mossy Cade went to prison in August for sexual assault. Quarterback Randy Wright and firstround draft pick Brent Fullwood held out in training camp (both would have underwhelming seasons). Finally, the team waived defensive end Charles Martin after a September bar fight.

The Packers started 0–1–1, outgained on offense by almost 400 yards and registering just 23 first downs while opponents racked up 50. Fans booed when the Packers were shut out for the first time in 122 games in a Week 1 home loss to the Raiders. A 17–17 tie at Denver in Week 2 didn’t help Green Bay fans’ morale.

The NFL skipped Week 3 after players went on strike.

The week off allowed teams to put together replacement rosters. The Packers signed players including Fitzgerald and

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The ribbing that Ed West received was good natured.

His track record spoke for itself: He finished his career with 25 touchdown catches.

Weigel to wear the green and gold, while the striking veterans took to the picket line.

Most of the replacement Packers had more NFL experience than Fitzgerald and Weigel. Many were training camp cuts or players that the team was already familiar with. Both Fitzgerald and Weigel thought they were the only two players to make the team after a cold tryout.

“We got right to work,” Weigel said. “There was no time to revel in anything and think about the situation too much. We were Packers. We had to learn the plays and get better. We didn’t want to look like a bunch of replacement players out there.”

Their first game was at the Metrodome against the Vikings. The game sold out before the strike, but only 13,911 people showed up to watch the replacements. Alan Risher threw for a touchdown and ran for another as Green Bay grabbed a 20–7 halftime lead.

Risher played in the USFL for two seasons and one year in the NFL with Tampa Bay. He signed with the Packers because he thought he could compete with regular quarterbacks Wright and Don Majkowski once the strike ended.

Risher looked like a true NFL quarterback for the first two quarters against the Vikings. But things got ugly after he scrambled for a 13-yard touchdown before halftime.

“It was always my dream to score a touchdown in the NFL and then spike the ball,” Risher said. “When I finally scored, I messed everything up. I went to spike it and the ball slipped out of my hands and went flying against the wall. Not good at all.”

Photo on previous page: Ronald C. Modra/Getty Images Photo on this page: Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

behind-the-back catches. When it was over, they said they wanted to sign me to play tight end.”

Fitzgerald and Weigel just looked at each other.

Fitzgerald never played tight end his entire life, but he wasn’t going to share that now. Instead, Fitzgerald lied and said he played the position in high school. Nobody asked any other questions, and the pair from Eau Claire were teammates once again, this time with the Packers.

On the first day of practice, a coach told Fitzgerald to run a seven route. Fitzgerald ran it, or at least what he thought was a seven route. Replacement quarterback Alan Risher lofted a perfect pass just over the fingertips of the leaping strong safety. Fitzgerald made the catch, cut up field, ran over the cornerback and ended up with an impressive gain.

Many of the striking Packers veterans were picketing outside the practice facility. While chanting, yelling, and disrupting, the veterans could watch practice through a chain link fence. After Fitzgerald made his play, the picketing stopped for a moment and all of the strikers looked at regular tight end Ed West.

West’s teammates teased him that the replacement looked pretty good, and might take his job.

“Man I felt so good, it was awesome,” Fitzgerald said.

“Then I looked down and someone threw an egg that hit me right in the shoe.”

Last-minute tryouts, pretending you know the plays, and getting pelted with eggs: Welcome to the world of NFL replacement players.

The B Team After his botched spike, Risher cooled off and the Vikings mounted a second-half comeback. But the Packers held on for a 23–16 victory thanks to a late interception from safety Jim Bob Morris. The pick gave the Packers their first win and made Morris a folk hero in Green Bay. It also set the stage for some tension later in the season.

Photo: Rick Stewart /Getty Images

BUTTING HEADS When Morris got the call to play for the Packers, he never considered turning it down. He didn’t see himself as someone crossing a picket line and taking away another man’s livelihood. He saw himself as someone seizing an opportunity.

“I fully get it. I understand it. I see the regular players’ point of view,” Morris said. “They were trying to better themselves, get more money, make their situations better. I recognized their situation, but I don’t think anyone recognized ours. A lot of us thought we still had something left in the tank. We didn’t want to waste it.”

Morris was a three-sport star at Hamilton (KS) High and at Coffeyville (KS) Junior College before accepting a football scholarship at Kansas State. He earned All-Big Eight honors in 1982 before signing as a free agent with the Kansas City Chiefs.

After playing in the USFL for three years, Morris entered the real estate business with then Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, but he put his career on hold to give football one more shot with the Packers. Morris ended up being a team leader and a fan favorite. Fitzgerald called him the “heartbeat of the team.”

When the strike ended, Morris was one of nine replacements to stay with the Packers. The others were Risher, receivers Lee Morris and Patrick Scott, tackles Steve Collier and Bob Gruber, center Vince Rafferty, linebacker James Melka, and kicker Max Zendejas. Offensive lineman Keith Uecker crossed the picket line and played one game with the replacements before the strike ended.

Naturally, many of the regulars were not happy with the replacement players during the strike. In the September 23, 1987 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, George Sauerberg interviewed offensive lineman Rich Moran as he cleaned out his locker.

“This is my livelihood. This is what I feed my wife and my kid with, make my mortgage payments with,” Moran said.

“You’re bringing in some guys who couldn’t make the team in the first place.”

But the NFL carried on and played three games with the replacements. When the strike ended, the regulars and the replacements who stuck with the team had to figure out how to co-exist.

There were no incidents on October 21, the first practice after the strike ended, but there was plenty of tension. Risher recalls quarterback meetings with Wright and Majkowski

being particularly contentious. The two regulars weren’t about to help a “scab” become more familiar with the playbook, or offer any other insights. He also remembers being confronted by a few of the regulars one night at a restaurant.

“I said, ‘Look man, don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the exact same thing,’” Risher said. “I wanted to get back in the league, get another shot. I went there for a purpose.”

Mixing replacement players with the regulars definitely did not make for an ideal football environment. But no matter how combustible the situation was, the replacements knew they had support from the person that mattered most.

GREGG HOLDS TEAM TOGETHER A cold front moved into Green Bay the final week of the strike. Halfway through practice one blustery morning, head coach Forrest Gregg ordered everyone to the indoor practice facility. The players couldn’t get there fast enough. They didn’t see the point of freezing to death when most of them would likely be off the team soon.

The Packers indoor facility was about 50 yards long with large garage doors on all four sides. As soon as the team reassembled, Gregg ordered each of the doors opened. The wind whipped through the facility and soon everyone was just as cold as they were a few minutes ago outside.

Several players asked Gregg why he moved practice inside in the first place. The coach told them they needed to get used to playing in the elements under unusual circumstances.

Keith Uecker crossed the picket line in 1987, but he would go on to play in 64 games over a six-year span in Green Bay.

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PACKERS PAST

“For a guy that played in the Ice Bowl, who knows what he was thinking?” Risher said.

Thankfully for Risher and the other replacements, Gregg was perfectly clear about the most important thing: Replacement players were Green Bay Packers, and they were to be treated like it.

“I thought that was the whole beauty of the ’87 strike,” Risher said. “Some guys never set foot in a pro situation before beyond training camp. It didn’t matter. Everyone from Forrest to the assistants to the equipment managers to the trainers treated us like we were Green Bay Packers.

Everything we did was professional and made us feel like we were part of the organization.”

Even though they were playing regular season games, the entire replacement player experience felt more like training camp. A bunch of new players came together to learn new plays, new systems, and a new coaching staff. Without buy-in from the head coach, the whole thing could have turned into a giant, discombobulated mess.

It could have completely exploded once the strike ended and the replacements mixed with the veterans. Gregg made sure that didn’t happen.

“Forrest just said to get along, that’s the way it was,” Jim Bob Morris said. “Not many people were going to question Forrest when he told you to do something.”

Some of the replacements thought Gregg would have preferred the regular players stayed on strike. The replacement

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LASTING MEMORIES Despite growing up in Marshfield and being a lifelong Packers fan, Weigel never set foot in Lambeau until the day

Randy Wright took over the starting quarterback job from Alan Risher after the strike ended.

Photo at top: George Rose/Getty Images Photo at bottom: Ronald C. Modra/Getty Images

Even though Rich Moran would rather forget the 1987 season, he was named first-team All-NFL by the Newspaper Enterprise Association in 1989.

games were ugly and filled with penalties and turnovers, but nobody ever questioned the players’ effort or motivation.

“Sometimes with the regular team, the attitude felt like they were beaten before the game even started,” Zendejas said. “The other guys came in and wanted to win no matter what. We gave it all every game.”

That effort was why most Packers fans accepted the replacement players. Many of the new Packers lived near Lambeau Field at the Midway Motor Inn. After games, it usually took players a while to walk back to the hotel because of all the fans that stuck around for post-game tailgating.

As players made their way through the stadium parking lot, fans reached in coolers and offered post-game beers. Before the player could take his first sip, somebody was handing him a brat with all the fixings. And it didn’t matter if it was John Elway or Jim Bob Morris, everyone wanted an autograph.

“Everything about Green Bay was just shocking to me,” Zendejas said. “They love that team. I’d be on the sideline next to the heater, trying to make sure my foot didn’t freeze off. Then I’d look in the stands and see fans without shirts, cheering on a bunch of replacement players. The fans were awesome.”

The fans’ passion might have been new to Zendejas. For Weigel, a Wisconsin native, it was nothing new. He just never thought those shirtless fans would one day be cheering for him.

The B Team

Photo: George Gojkovich/Getty Images

he tried out for the team with Fitzgerald. He knew the history and the mystique surrounding the franchise, but never had an opportunity to see a game live.

Moments before the replacement Packers took the field on October 11 for their first home game, Weigel tried to mentally capture the moment. There were over 35,000 people in the stands; 35,000 people that paid money to watch him play football. Weigel never got a chance to witness any Packers history in person, but now he was getting an opportunity to be a small piece of it.

“That was the best part, just coming out of the tunnel,” Weigel said. “You knew that you were a pro football player then. It made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.”

The warm and fuzzy feeling didn’t last long, though. The game lasted over four hours and the Packers lost a stinker to the Lions, 19–16. They allowed seven sacks and were penalized 11 times for 114 yards. In the next day’s Journal Sentinel, beat writer Cliff Christl called the game a “masquerade.” He also said it was often “boring,” “laughable,” and “sometimes even frightening.”

About 30 of the striking Packers picketed at the entrances to Lambeau before the game and were joined by other union members from around Green Bay. The announced crowd of 35,779 was the smallest in 24 years at Lambeau, but the fourth-largest in the previous two weeks in the NFL. Throughout all the sloppy play, picketing, and eventual defeat, one thing was clear: These replacement Packers played hard. Christl quoted Gregg after the game: “I think they appreciate where they are a little more than the regulars do. I think something should be said for all these players. I think they enjoy playing professional football; they don’t feel anybody owes them anything.”

Weigel said he’s gone to a couple of pre-season games at Lambeau since his playing days. He prefers preseason games because he can relate to the guys at the end of the bench trying to make the team. He feels a connection with the players who appreciate the opportunity to play in the NFL. “That was me, I was one of those guys,” Weigel said.

“The stars are set, they’re going to be ready regardless. I like watching the guys scrapping to make the squad.”

But no matter how hard the replacements scrapped, their days as Packers were numbered.

BACK TO NORMAL Moments after the last replacement game––an ugly 16–10 overtime win over Philadelphia at Lambeau––Gregg gathered everyone in the locker room. A crowd of 35,842 chanted “B-team! B-team!” and gave the replacements a standing ovation as they left the field. Fighting back tears, it was Gregg’s turn to let the replacements know how much he appreciated their effort.

Max Zendejas’s best season in the NFL came in 1987 when he made 84.2% of his field goals for the Packers.

“It was very emotional. He told us to be proud of what we put together and what we accomplished,” Risher said. “He told us he was proud of us. He talked about how great it was to coach us.”

The Packers gave each replacement player a souvenir jersey and threw them a party after the game. For most of the players, it was the last time they would ever play football again.

“You could feel everyone looking around the room, thinking ‘Goddangit. Well, it was fun while it lasted,’” Jim Bob Morris said. “You could see the realization in a lot of guys that this was the last time they were ever going to play.”

Morris and Risher both thought they had a good shot of sticking with the team after the strike. For most of the others, the win over Philadelphia would likely be the last NFL game of their careers. Nevertheless, Fitzgerald said the mood was upbeat.

“The team felt like it was made up of a bunch of fifthyear seniors,” he said. “We were just happy to win our last game. We just wanted to play football and win.”

The Packers won just three more games once the regulars returned. Gregg left in the offseason to coach at Southern Methodist. Despite the unique stories behind the replacement players and the strike itself, 1987 remains a forgettable year for most Packers fans.

But for the players that had a chance to dodge eggs and win two games for the Packers, it’s something they’ll never forget “It was a fabulous experience with those guys,” Risher said. “I’ll be known as Captain Scab forever, man.” MSP Adam Czech is a freelance reporter living and working in the Twin Cities.

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