• 1984: 11-5, lost in the first round of the playoffs
• 1985: 10-6, didn't make the playoffs
• 1986: 12-4, lost to the Giants in the NFL title game

• The games scheduled for the third week were cancelled.
• The games for Weeks 4, 5, and 6 were played with replacement players augmented by about 15% of the union members who chose to cross picket lines.
• The union voted to end the strike and return to their teams for Week 7.

Washington was the only team with no players who crossed the picket line. "I told our guys not to do that," said Gibbs. "I preached it to our veterans: If you're out, stay out together. Or come back together. A team has to function as a team or it's finished."

Washington's staff, led by GM Bobby Beathard and his assistant, Charley Casserly, had been on the lookout for replacement players ever since the summer when word of the impending strike began to circulate during training camp.

• In September, they kept track of the last players cut across the league, figuring these guys would be the closest in ability to the striking players.
• As a result, the Redskins won all three of their games with replacement players. By contrast, their NFC East rivals, the Giants and Eagles, each lost all three games. The Cowboys won their first two games before losing to the Redskins. The St. Louis Cardinals won one of three.
• 11-4 Washington won their division by four games over the Cowboys, Cardinals, and Eagles with the Giants in the cellar at 6-9.

The Redskins starting quarterback to begin the 1987 season was Jay Schroeder.

• He started all 16 games in 1986 and was named to the Pro Bowl after throwing for a franchise record 4,109y. Rewarded with a three-year, $2.7-million contract, the second-year pro from UCLA seemed set as the franchise quarterback of the future.
• 32-year-old backup QB Doug Williams could see the handwriting on the wall. After the last preseason game prior to the '87 season, Gibbs gave Doug some great news. He was being traded to the Raiders, whose veteran QB Jim Plunkett had failed his physical. "I'm happy," said Doug, "not so much happy to leave the Redskins, but I'm happy because now I think I got a chance to start." Read about Williams' circuitous journey to the Redskins.
• But the next day when Williams went to Gibbs' office, the coach told him, "I changed my mind." Crestfallen, Williams demanded to know why. As Doug recalled, "He said, 'I just got a feeling that somewhere along here you're going to come in here, and we gonna win.'"

It didn't take long for Gibbs's intuition to be vindicated.

• Four and a half minutes into the opening game against the Eagles, all-Pro DT Reggie White smashed Schroeder just as he threw a pass. A badly sprained shoulder with internal bleeding sent Schroeder to the sideline. Williams hurried onto the field and led his team to a 34-24 victory.
• A week later Williams made his first NFL start since January 1983 for the Bucs. The Falcons prevailed at home 21-20.
• His shoulder healed when play resumed after the strike, Schroeder resumed his starting role but was not as effective as he had been in 1986. Twice Williams came on in relief in a game to lead the Skins to victory. He also played the entire game against the Los Angeles Rams in which he threw for 308y in a 30-26 defeat.

After Williams brought the Redskins from behind to beat Minnesota 27-24 in the final game, Gibbs made a surprising announcement four days later.

• Impressed by the way the team responded to Doug's leadership, Gibbs named Williams the starter for the playoffs in place of the inconsistent Schroeder. WR Ricky Sanders said, "There's just something about the guy. He just sparks the team."
  "I think everybody was excited," recalled C Jeff Bostic. "I know I was. Doug was a guy that rallied people around him."
• Williams was steady but unspectacular in the playoff victories against the Bears (21-17) and Vikings (17-10). He threw for 326y and three touchdowns with one interception.
• Defensive coordinator Richie Petitbon recalled, "We couldn't make Doug feel like he had to do it all. That meant it couldn't come down to a matter of him having to outdo Elway. We had to give him some help defensively."
  The day before the game, Williams talked with his legendary coach at Grambling, Eddie Robinson. Eddie told him, "Just be the best quarterback you can and be so good that nobody can ignore you. Let your play be your statement." Eddie recalled later, "A Grambling player at quarterback in the Super Bowl. I still get smiles when I think of it."

The AFC champion Denver Broncos had no quarterback controversy.

• John Elway manned that position ever since the Broncos engineered a trade with the Baltimore Colts to obtain the #1 pick in the 1983 NFL draft.
• After going 9-7 in Elway's first season, Denver won 10 or more games in each of the next four seasons.
• They won the AFC in 1986 but lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants.
• Elway threw to an outstanding receiving corps who dubbed themselves "The Three Amigos" after a popular movie: Mark Jackson, Vance Johnson, and rookie Ricky Nattiel. However Johnson would not play in the Super Bowl because of a groin injury.

Heading into the 1987 season, the Broncos were still smarting from that loss to the Giants and determined to redeem themselves in Super Bowl XXII.

• Denver went 8-3-1 in the games Elway started and won two of their three strike games. The Broncos broke the hearts of long-suffering Cleveland fans in the AFC championship game for the second year in a row.
• Elway engineered "The Drive" in Cleveland the year before, leading his team 98y in 15 plays to tie the game with 37 seconds left in regulation. Denver won the game with a field goal in overtime.
• A year later, the teams met for the AFC crown in Denver. Down 38-33, the Browns drove inside the Denver 10 only to have RB Earnest Byner lose a fumble at the two with 1:05 left.

The trademark of Dan Reeves's 1987 Broncos, like his first six Denver teams, was toughness.

• The Broncos weren't big, fast, or overpowering, but they were determined and scrappy.
• They had an outstanding pass defense that led the AFC in interceptions. However, their secondary was hurting. All the starters were classified as "walking wounded" by Reeves.
• Dan also worried about how his small front seven would match up against the Redskins and their huge offensive line, still known as The Hogs. They needed to stop Washington's powerful running game led by George Rogers (613y in 11 games) and Kelvin Bryant (406y).
• The key man for the Broncos wouldn't even be on the field: defensive coordinator Joe Collier, the ingenious mind behind Denver's mystifying defenses.

Bookies complained that this Super Bowl matchup failed to excite the betting public.

• "It's just not a glamour matchup," said Rick Herron, manager of the sports book at the Sands Hotel. "Washington is a very solid football team, but they have no superstars. And the Broncos have only one–John Elway."
• The game started with Denver a 3 1/2-point favorite but quickly went up to four points.
• Something that Doug Williams did Saturday would have changed the odds if the public had known about it. He admitted after the game that he missed team meetings because he spent four and a half hours in a dentist's chair Saturday undergoing a root canal for an abscessed tooth. His dinner before the biggest game of his life was painkillers and Hershey's Kisses. Furthermore, he woke up at 4AM Sunday morning and couldn't get back to sleep.
  Another factor that insiders could learn from was that Joe Gibbs was considerably more relaxed Sunday morning than Dan Reeves. Almost everyone who saw the two coaches said substantially the same thing: "Reeves is uptight. Gibbs is ready."

ABC televised the game using their Monday Night Football crew.

• Al Michaels did the play-by-play with Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf providing commentary. The game drew a 41.9 rating and an estimated 80.14 million viewers.
• Jack Buck and Hank Stram, CBS's Monday night team, called the game on radio.

Trumpeter Herb Alpert played the National Anthem. Legendary NFL receiver Don Hutson assisted with the coin toss.