If the Dallas Cowboys want to employ a winning work-stoppage plan, they should follow the example the Washington Redskins set in the strike seasons of 1982 and '87, former Redskins defensive tackle and San Antonio native Darryl Grant said.
The Redskins won the Super Bowls played after those seasons in large part because their players remained united during the labor strife and practiced on their own as a team, Grant believes.
“We got together, and we worked out during the strikes, and it absolutely made a difference when we went back to work,”
said Grant, 51. “We had super players, but that unity gained from working out together during the strikes gave us an extra bond, extra strength.”
Labor talks between the league and the NFL Players Association collapsed March 11, prompting the players to dissolve the union and file an antitrust suit against the owners. The owners responded by locking out the players.
Because of the lockout, players must train this spring without team-related supervision.
In anticipation of the lockout, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo vowed in January to organize practices for the offense on his own. As of Tuesday, there have been no reports of any such workouts taking place.
A 1977 Highlands graduate, Grant recalled in a recent phone interview from Centreville, Va., how he and his teammates remained in the Washington, D.C., area during the strikes of the 1980s and followed a plan formulated by coach Joe Gibbs and his staff that allowed the team to emerge relatively rust-free from those work stoppages.
The strike in '82 lasted 57 days and wiped out seven games. When the players went on strike for 24 days in '87, Grant and his teammates had a template to follow.
“Joe told us, ‘At some point, this strike is going to be over, so we have to stick together,'”
said Grant, a Rice alum who played 10 of his NFL seasons with Washington before retiring after the 1991 campaign. “We were a close-knit group, so we were going to do that anyway. But what he said just helped us out a little bit more.“
“(The captains) mandated that nobody leave, and we continued to work out. A lot of teams did not do that. Guys on other teams went on vacation and flew across the country. We easily could have done that, but we were determined not to miss a beat.”
With their veterans leading the way, the Redskins practiced at local parks and high schools.
“We practiced like we normally would practice,”
Grant said. “It was just without pads and helmets.”
Grant, who returned an interception for a game-clinching touchdown against the Cowboys in the 1982 NFC title game, said he wouldn't be surprised if today's players decide against training as a team during the lockout.
“You have guys with private trainers, chefs, dietitians, all kind of crazy stuff going on,”
he said. “They may not feel like leaving their private gyms.”
Indeed, Chiefs linebacker Mike Vrabel told the Kansas City Star recently he's against players doing any unsupervised field work.
“If guys want to run and lift, that's good,”
said Vrabel, a member of the NFLPA executive committee. “But when you put guys on the field unsupervised ... that's like walking a tightrope without a net. The running and lifting is great, but when you get out there and start throwing and covering receivers, you're taking a lot of risk.”
Still, Grant maintains teams that work out together will have an edge.
“If guys just sit back and don't do anything, it's just going to be a mess (when the lockout ends),”
he said.
