Former KC Star and current ESPN.com writer Elizabeth Merrill has a new piece chronicling the lives of several of those involved in the 1987 NFL strike. I was only a couple of years removed from diapers so for anyone who didn't live through that year in the NFL, this is a good piece to read.
There are several Chiefs mentions, including one former player, Jack Epps.
By mid-October, a number of veterans were crossing the picket lines to play, and the end was looming. The Broncos beat the Chiefs 26-17 on Oct. 18, and Chiefs coach Frank Gansz huddled the team together in the locker room. He told them that the players were coming back, and that some of the replacements would be here next week, but most of them wouldn't. Thanks for coming in to help us, Gansz said.
The locker room was quiet. The replacements were sweaty and worn out. Epps packed up his belongings, because that's what Gansz told everybody to do.
And of course we can't mention the 1987 strike without the crazy image of former Chiefs Paul Coffman and Dino Hackett wielding shotguns in a pickup truck at the picket line.
Imagine how today's media would react to something like that....