The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Local won his start during ‘87 season
This month 30 years ago, Mentor resident Brian McClure won his only start as an NFL quarterback, during the 1987 players’ strike. He has the bumps and bruises from hits by Lawrence Taylor to prove it.
Thirty years ago — almost to the day — Brian McClure was just hoping for a chance to prove himself as an NFL quarterback.
How it finally happened, and against one player in particular, is still remembered. On Oct. 18, 1987, McClure, a longtime Mentor resident, made his first and only NFL start under unlikely circumstances.
The 1987 NFL season is notable for the players strike that lasted about a month. Five years earlier in 1982, another players strike wiped out nearly half of the NFL’s regular season.
NFL owners vowed to not let that happen again, so replacement players or “scabs” — as they were called — were hired by teams to play games during a three-week span in 1987. Truck drivers, teachers — you name the profession — were brought in to build teams on the fly for NFL games that counted in the standings.
Enter McClure, who was in a unique situation. He had spent two seasons in 1985 and 1986 with Buffalo as a backup after a standout career at Bowling Green, where he was a two-time Mid-American Conference Player of the Year. When he graduated from BG, McClure was the No. 2 all-time leading passer in NCAA history behind 1984 Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie.
Still, McClure could not break through in the NFL, and during the strike he was presented with an opportunity he could not pass.
“It was fun, and not so much fun,” said McClure thinking back to Oct. 18, 1987. “But at least I can say I was undefeated as a starting NFL quarterback. It’s something I’ll always remember.”
McClure was in Buffalo’s training camp in 1987, but was cut just before the start of the regular season. Jim Kelly was the team’s starter, and Frank Reich his backup. McClure was and still is friends with both.
After he was cut, McClure had a short stint with the Packers. When the ’87 strike began, the Houston Oilers inquired about McClure’s interest as their replacement team QB, but he declined the offer. Then the Bills called, and McClure had a difficult decision to make.
“My dad was a big union guy,” said McClure.
So were NFL players. They began their strike on Sept. 22, 1987. They picketed outside NFL stadiums, and harassed the replacement players. It got ugly.
In Cincinnati, quarterback Boomer Esiason blocked a bus transporting replacement players.
For two weeks, NFL players stood their ground, but by the third week established stars began to cross the picket line to collect their paychecks.
The Bills lost their first two replacement games, and in desperate need of a win reached out to McClure to help salvage a win.
“For me, it was now or never,” said McClure. “I just wanted a shot.”
McClure remembered calling Reich asking for advice.
“It was tough,” he said. “We were friends, but I think there was a little bit of animosity there.”
McClure signed on Oct. 11, 1987, and the next day was cramming for the game plan like a procrastinating college student for a final exam. Then McClure received “the news.”
Buffalo’s opponent that week was the New York Giants. On Oct. 14, 1987, Lawrence Taylor — one of the greatest defensive players in the history of the NFL — crossed the picket line and returned to the team.
“You gotta be freaking kidding me,” McClure remembered saying upon hearing the news.
The Giants were defending Super Bowl champions, but were 0-4 before the Bills game. Buffalo was 1-3, and needed a win as badly as New York.
The game did not play out as a thing of beauty. Each team managed a fourth-quarter field goal until Todd Schlopy’s 27yard chip shot won it for the Bills, 6-3, in overtime.
McClure grew up in Portage County, and had his parents and future wife Lisa in attendance, but what he remembers most is being constantly hounded by Taylor.
“It seemed every time I went back to pass he was there to hit me,” said McClure.
Taylor, who had 132½ career sacks, had that effect in his Hall of Fame career. He was credited with two sacks in the game.
In his one and only NFL start, McClure was 20 of 38 passing for 181 yards and three interceptions, including the two sacks by Taylor.
The following week, the players strike ended and most of the replacement players went back to their normal life and jobs.
McClure stayed with the Bills — per his contract — but the pounding he took from Taylor and the Giants took a toll. He was put on injured reserve and missed the rest of the season.
“I think I spent the next two weeks recovering,” said McClure. “I had so many turf burns, bruised ribs and my shoulders were killing me.”
Injuries were the least of McClure’s problems initially. Returning to the team’s facility the next day to face his Bills teammates — the ones who just returned from the strike — was nerve-wracking.
“That was the hardest part, but everything turned out fine,” said McClure.
The following season McClure was again with the Bills in training camp but was the team’s last cut. He never played in another NFL game, but the memories of Oct. 18, 1987, never fade for McClure.
“My buddy owned a bar in South Buffalo called ‘Cheers,’ ” said McClure. “It’s closed now, but at the time fans would go there after Bills games. I knew the owner and I went there for a beer after the game to wind down, and there was hardly anyone in there except for a few of my friends. They congratulated me, and we had a good time just talking about the game.”