The ‘Phony Niners’ took the field 30 years ago today.
Bill Walsh spent 10 seasons with the 49ers running the West Coast offense, but for one half, of one game, he made a seismic shift: He shelved his revolutionary attack for the wishbone. No, seriously. Thirty years ago, on Oct. 5, 1987, the 49ers played perhaps the most surreal game in the franchise’s 72-season history. And Walsh’s decision to run a decidedly non-NFL offense was among the many oddities.
In the first “Monday Night Football” game played during the 1987 players’ strike, the 49ers’ replacement players — dubbed the “Phony Niners” — beat the Giants 41-21 before more
than 60,000 empty seats at 77,172-seat Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.
It was the first nonsellout of the 11-year-old stadium after more than 40,000 tickets were refunded. One sign in the stands: “Stay On Strike. We Get Better Seats.”
Two days after the game, 12 members of the 49ers, including Joe Montana, Roger Craig and Dwight Clark, crossed the picket line and joined the team for the final two games of the 24-day strike.
But the 49ers were nearly unrecognizable during their replacement opener, which counted in the regular-season standings. There was no Jerry Rice, but there was a Jerry Keeble. Tom Rathman was absent, but there was Tom Henley.
“There was a football game going on, and it was real football game in terms of how it’s being presented, in terms of TV and otherwise,” recalled 49ers President Carmen Policy, who watched the game with Eddie DeBartolo from the visiting owner’s box. “And whoever wins is going to be seriously counted in terms of the season’s result. But, my gosh, it just didn’t seem real.”
The game’s leading rusher, fullback Mike Varajon, had been in Detroit waiting to hear from Chrysler about a security job when the 49ers called. And he wasn’t alone. Guard Limbo Parks, who had just finished his career at Arkansas, was working as a Pizza Hut deliveryman in Fayetteville, Ark. Linebacker Carl Keever was employed at his brother-inlaw’s seafood company in San Francisco and was an assistant coach at Mills High in Millbrae.
The game marked the only time in a 214-game span from Nov. 9, 1986, to Jan. 3, 2000, that Joe Montana or Steve Young wasn’t on the 49ers’ roster. (Montana was on injured reserve for part of 1986).
However, another legendary figure, Walsh, was present and he approached the strike games with a desire to win, and a twinkle in his eye. He told reporters the games reminded him of his time coaching the semipro San Jose Apaches 20 years earlier: “I’ll be able to get out the old notes,” he said.
And he told his new players they would be running the wishbone, which hadn’t been seen in the NFL since Chuck Fairbanks used it with the Patriots in the mid-’70s. Walsh installed the run-heavy attack because one of his replacement quarterbacks was Mark Stevens, a swift runner who had led a similar offense, the veer, at Utah.
“We came in one day and he put in the wishbone offense,” Stevens said. “People were like ‘Um, OK.’ No one was going to question Bill Walsh.”
With Walsh handing off play-calling duties to wide receivers coach Dennis Green, the 49ers led 17-7 at halftime under the direction of quarterback Bob Gagliano, who would make 12 more NFL starts with the Lions and Chargers.
In the third quarter, Walsh inserted Stevens, a Canadian Football League player who had not had an NFL tryout and didn’t play in the league after the strike. However, Stevens was brilliant against the flummoxed Giants. Head coach Bill Parcells smiled across the field at Walsh when the wishbone was unveiled with a 5yard run by Stevens on the first play of the third quarter.
“Parcells was hilarious,” Policy said. “He looks over at Bill after that play and in a Jersey style was like, ‘What’s up?’ ”
Walsh’s response? Former 49ers head coach George Seifert, then the defensive coordinator, laughed at the memory: “Bill kind of smiled and shrugged his shoulders like, ‘I apologize, but I’m going for the win.’ ”
And Stevens sealed the victory. Playing most of the second half, he rushed for 36 yards on seven carries and had a 9-yard touchdown run. He also completed 2 of 2 passes for 52 yards, including a 39-yard scoring toss from the wishbone formation.
Perhaps fittingly, the biggest star of a replacement game couldn’t avoid a humbling moment. After Stevens’ touchdown run, he nearly faceplanted when trying to spike the ball because of a slick area in the end zone.
“And you know what — my son saw that play on a blooper reel,” Stevens said. “So his experience of me playing in the NFL? It’s on a blooper reel.”
Stevens was sensational. And so was Walsh, who successfully installed the offense after consulting during the strike with Dick Vermeil. The former Philadelphia head coach had run the wishbone at UCLA.
“It was a way to help us win,” Seifert said. “It certainly caught the Giants off guard. It was part of the genius of Bill. At the same time, he was having fun with it, too. Winning was the main point, but you could tell the way he laughed and joked around the practice field that he was having fun with this.”
When it became clear the strike games would count in the standings, the 49ers’ front office was also serious about winning. Players such as Keever, who had been cut during training camp that summer, were contacted before the strike started.
The result: Sixteen of the 46 players on their roster had previous NFL experience, and many had been in the past two camps with the team. The Giants, who were defending Super Bowl champions, replaced Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor with a roster that included just four players with NFL experience. Twelve of their players were taken from the Connecticut Giants, a semipro team. In The Chronicle, Ron Thomas wrote that the Giants’ most noteworthy player was wide receiver Edwin Lovelady, “whose name is more memorable than his talent.”
Against the 49ers, the Giants had four turnovers, a punt blocked that resulted in a touchdown and a shotgun snap that skipped past quarterback Jim Crocicchia, who recovered it for a 19-yard loss. In the fourth quarter, Giants defensive lineman Reggie Carr was sitting on the bench with his head rolled back, as if he were napping. Explained Carr to reporters: “I wasn’t asleep; I was tired from losing.”
The Giants also allowed the 49ers to recover an “onside kick” that traveled 40 yards downfield. Keever recovered the loose ball amid a group of opponents who turned into spectators.
“They were just standing around,” Keever recalled recently. “I ran down and jumped on top of the ball.”
Asked recently about his most vivid memories of the game, linebacker Ron Hadley had a ready response: “Well,” he began, “they weren’t a lot of people in the stands.”
But there were some angry people outside the stadium.
Their team bus was met by about 50 striking members of the Giants and Jets, who welcomed the replacements with catcalls and obscene gestures. Parks, the offensive guard, recalled fans throwing objects at the bus and hurling insults at him after kickoff.
“I remember all the pleasantries from the New York Giants’ fans,” said Parks, who earned $5,000 a game. “One guy told me that I sucked. And I told him I was 21 years old and making more money than his pops. He tried to come on the field and security had to grab him.”
Parks had company. The replacement players were viewed derisively by fans and the media, and referred to as “scabs.” At the Meadowlands, one fan held a sign that read: “National Football League. Anybody Can Play.” So did it sting to be called the “Phony Niners?”
“When you’ve played football all your life — and then to have the opportunity to play again?” Keever said. “You don’t care about what other people think. Especially being a middle linebacker. All you want to do is hit people.”
It was a sparsely attended game held during a strike that drew dismal television ratings. That is, the few who witnessed the odd affair probably have largely forgotten it.
However, 30 years later, the replacements cherish the memories.
For Stevens, his NFL debut was also a homecoming. The game was played about 5 miles from his hometown of Passaic, N.J., and a host of friends and family attended.
Keever? His estranged dad, watching in Anchorage, Alaska, reached out to reconnect after seeing him on national television. They had a relationship until Frank Keever died of cancer in 1994.
Hadley fondly recalls playing linebacker next to Keever, his former teammate at Boise (Idaho) High School, while 49ers radio broadcaster Wayne Walker, another Boise High alum, called the action.
“It was so fun for our high school coaches and teammates,” Hadley said. “We were able to enjoy it in the moment and we still do today.”
Parks, who is now a high school teacher and football coach near Kansas City, Mo., roared with laughter when contacted by a reporter: “How did you find me?” he said to start a 20-minute interview.
On Oct. 5, 1987, many of the replacement 49ers realized an NFL dream. They went 3-0 during the strike, helping the 49ers to a 13-2 season that ended with a divisional playoff loss to the Vikings.
Policy said the replacement players would have been invited to that season’s Super Bowl in San Diego if the 49ers had advanced. They didn’t get that trip, but didn’t exit emptyhanded.
Stevens received a plaque for winning the NFC West and a note from Walsh and Policy thanking him for his contribution. And Stevens also received the thrill of expertly carrying out the wild idea of one of the best coaches in NFL history.
Still, the director of the wishbone does have a bone to pick with the team 30 years later.
“They would have loved to have kept me, but they had Joe Montana and Steve Young,” Stevens said, laughing. “Even though I might have been better than them. Hey, it must have been a numbers game.”
“It was a way to help us win. It certainly caught the Giants off guard.” George then-49ers Seifert, defensive coordinator