abstract
| - The 1987 NFL season was the 68th regular season of the National Football League. A 24-day players' strike reduced the 16-game season to 15. The games that were scheduled for the third week of the season were canceled, but the games for weeks 4-6 were played with replacement players. 85% of the veteran players did not cross picket lines during the strike. The replacement player teams were given mock names like "Chicago Spare Bears", "San Francisco Phoney Niners", "New Orleans Saint Elsewheres", "Washington ScabSkins", and "Seattle Sea-scabs". Final television revenues were down by about 20%, a smaller drop than the networks had expected. The defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants went 0-3 in replacement games, ultimately costing them a chance to make the playoffs and repeat their championship. Starting on November 8, 1987, ESPN debuted ESPN Sunday Night Football, in which the cable network started to broadcast NFL Sunday night games primarily during the second half of the season. Due to Game 7 of the 1987 World Series, the Denver Broncos - Minnesota Vikings game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was moved back one day to Monday, October 26. Coincidentally, the Broncos had been scheduled to play on Monday night the week the strike began (against the Cleveland Browns), while both Monday Night Football and this year's World Series were televised on ABC. Walter Payton played his last NFL season retiring as the NFL all-time leading rusher. The season ended with Super Bowl XXII when the Washington Redskins defeated the Denver Broncos.
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