JACKSON, Tenn. — Nov. 13, 2015 — Ted Kluck, assistant professor of communication arts at Union University, returned to his love of football with his new book about an often forgotten three-week period in NFL history.
The book, “Three-Week Professionals: Inside the 1987 NFL Players’ Strike,” tells the story of the replacement and professional football players during a strike in October 1987.
After the professional players went on strike “demanding better pay and the right to seek free agency,” the team owners decided they would “field ‘scab’ rosters populated by replacement players,” Kluck wrote.
Learning more about the replacement games proved to be difficult, Kluck said, with most footage being inaccessible. Once he tracked down some of the players, though, he discovered they were eager to tell their stories.
“It surprised me,” Kluck said. “I was reminded of how I can honor people in the way I tell their story ... and their stories were unique because they represented a chance for these guys to live their dreams.”
Interviews with the replacement players offered insight on a little-discussed event when “‘regular’ men — truck drivers, school teachers, stock brokers — were able to put on the NFL helmets and jerseys” and “play in professional stadiums,” Kluck wrote.
Professional players who walked the picket line also had a story to tell, Kluck said, and he thinks “there is a debt owed to all the players on both sides of the dispute to tell their stories and to shine some light on a shrouded period of NFL history.”
Kluck’s interest in the 1987 strike began when he realized no one had written on this “surreal” time, and after writing several “weighty and thoughtful” Christian books in the last year, Kluck said he wanted another football book.
“This book was a joy,” Kluck wrote. “It was a joy because it involved delving into football, into my childhood, and into relationships with people whose stories I care about.”
Kluck has written 18 books and plans to release a book about long snapping in the fall of 2016.
“People like sports and crazy stories,” Kluck said. “Given that, I’ll always have a job.”
“Three-Week Professionals: Inside the 1987 NFL Players’ Strike” is available at Amazon and other online retailers.