This very week, 40 years ago, NFL fans were so excited to see their teams get back in action.
The 1982 season had begun with the first two weeks of the season having a dark cloud of suspicion over them. Each day of those two weeks, analysts and the press wondered aloud and through the print media whether the NFL would actually see a strike take place during the season.
The prior season, Joe Gibbs’ first in Washington had started horribly, as Gibbs brought in his Air Coryell offense for Joe Theismann to orchestrate. However, Washington lost their first five games, and Gibbs would later say he actually kept thinking if he would be fired before he ever won his first game as an NFL head coach.
But the 1981 team rebounded as Gibbs determined to go more with his personnel, shape more of a ball-control offense using running backs John Riggins and Joe Washington. The team won eight of their last eleven games, finishing 8-8.
Having drafted such players in 1981 as Mark May, Russ Grimm, Dexter Manley, Darryl Grant and Clint Didier and signed Joe Jacoby as an undrafted free agent, the 1982 season was one of promise and hope.
The season had opened Sept. 12 with Washington the underdog traveling to Philadelphia who had been to the Super Bowl in 1980 and the playoffs in 1979 and 1981. Trailing 27-14 entering the final quarter, the Redskins roared back, winning 37-34 in overtime.
Week 2 saw Washington again a road team, this time at Tampa Bay. Joe Gibbs was returning to Tampa for the first time as a head coach. Gibbs had earlier been on the Bucs staff under John McKay.
In a game that saw heavy amounts of rain, Washington slid their way to a 21-13 victory in Tampa. Washington was 2-0, a strike was officially announced the next night and the nation lost the NFL for the next 57 days. NFL games in weeks three through ten were lost.
November 21, Washington would be back in action, but because of the scheduled game being in New York against the Giants, Redskins fans were still unable to see their favorite team play at home in RFK. Washington would not play a game at RFK in the 1982 season until November 28, their second game of the season against the Eagles.
40 years ago this week, Washington was 2-0, coming off of an NFL Strike, about to begin for a second time a season when the franchise would go on to win its first Super Bowl (XVII).