1981 Fleer NFL Football Stickers - New York Jets and Oakland Raiders

Next up on the list of 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL Football Stickers variations are 2 AFL rivals whose most famous game is remembered more for the show that interrupted the fantastic ending of the game than the ending itself. The "Heidi" Game as it has come to be known changed the way that football was broadcast when NBC made the decision to cut to the movie Heidi with 65 seconds left in the Jets - Raiders game in 1968.

Viewers missed the Raiders score 2 TDs in 9 seconds and come back from a 32 - 29 deficit to a 43-32 win because the game was preempted by the movie. The reaction from viewers was overwhelming as so many people called NBC that the switchboard shut down due to the massive amount of calls. As a result, NFL TV policies were amended to require that games be shown in their entirety in the markets of the teams involved.

New York Jets:

The variations on the Jets stickers are a very subtle difference in the shade of green on the helmets.


The difference is minor with the stickers on the left having a slightly darker shade of green.

Oakland Raiders:

There are actually 4 Raider helmet variations (although I've only got 3 variations to show). The obvious variation is that the helmet can be found with either a gray or white facemask.


What's not so obvious is that there is a second variation that has to do with the placement of the helment on the football field background. As you can see in the scan below, the hash marks are in different positions on the 2 helmets with the gray facemask.


This same variation exists with the white facemask helmet, but I haven't been able to track down a copy yet.

The logo variation is also due to the markings on the football field background.


The sticker on the left has the yard line going through the top of the "O" in Oakland while the sticker on the right has the yard line going through the middle of the "O". The other minor difference is the white outline around the logo. It is slightly thicker on the sticker on the left.

1981 Fleer NFL Football Stickers - New Orleans Saints and New York Giants

Next up in the ongoing review of the variations in the 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL Football Stickers are the Saints and Giants.

New Orleans Saints:

The Saints helmet can be found with either a white or a black facemask. In addition, the helmet with the black facemask is a darker shade of gold:


The difference in shading is also found on the logo stickers as the sticker on the right has a slightly darker shade of gold.

New York Giants:

The Giants helmet can be found with a lighter shade of blue as seen on the left and a much darker shade of blue on the right. The other interesting difference is that the helmet with the lighter shade also has a thin white stripe just under the red stripe on the top of the helmet while the darker shaded helmet does not have the thin white stripe.


As the logo sticker is just a smaller version of the helmet, the same variations are found on the logo stickers.

Happy Thanksgiving - AFL Style!

In the early years of the AFL, teams were responsible for creating their own game programs which resulted in unique covers which often used art work showing the home team's mascot taking on the opposition's mascot. These team created program covers are much more interesting than the league produced programs which followed a few years later in both the AFL as well as the NFL as the leagues tried to standardize the programs across all teams.

In honor of Thanksgiving, here are a few AFL programs with a Thanksgiving theme:






Happy Thanksgiving from The Fleer Sticker Project!

1981 Fleer NFL Football Stickers - Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots

Next up on the ongoing review of the variations in the 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL Football Stickers are the Vikings and Patriots.

Minnesota Vikings:

The Vikings helmet can be found with a lighter and darker shade of purple. The helmet on the right has a darker shade of purple than the helmet on the left.


The same is true for the logo sticker, where the name Vikings is a darker shade of purple on the right.

New England Patriots:

The Patriots stickers have two color variations. The red stripe on the helmet as well as the red football and Pat Patriot's red hat and socks are different shades of red between the two helmet stickers. In addition, the jacket is blue on the helmet on the left, while it is almost black on the helmet on the right.


The same color differences are found on the logo stickers. One other small point of distinction is that Pat Patriot has some red on his cuffs on the sticker on the right while the same marks are gray on the sticker on the left.

1981 Fleer NFL Football Stickers - Los Angeles Rams and Miami Dolphins

We've reached the half way point in the review of the sticker variations in the 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL Football Stickers.

Los Angeles Rams

The differences in the Rams stickers are very easy to identify. The helmet sticker can be found with a white facemask (with a lighter shade of blue helmet and yellow ram horns) or with a gray facemask (with a much darker blue helmet and horns that are closer to orange)


The logo sticker can be found with either a white or orange ram.

Miami Dolphins

The variations with the Dolphins stickers are found in the different shades of aqua used on the Dolphin logo. The helmet with the gray facemask has a darker shaded dolphin than the helmet with the white facemask.



The same difference in shading can also be seen on the logo sticker. In addition, the shade of orange is darker on the stickers on the left as well.

1981 Fleer NFL Football Stickers - Houston Oilers and Kansas City Chiefs

We've got 2 original AFL teams for today's installment of the ongoing review of the 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL Football Stickers:

Houston Oilers:

The Oilers helmet can be found with either a white or a red facemask. In addition, the helmet with the white facemask has a lighter shade of blue (closer to a powder blue) for the oil derrick logo than the helmet with the red facemask:


The ligher shade of blue is also seen on the logo sticker on the left vs the slightly darker shade of blue on the right.

Kansas City Chiefs:

The variations for the Chiefs can be found in the different shades of red that were used. Once again I'll apologize for the fact that my scanner doesn't really show the difference as well as is should, but both the helmet and logo stickers on the left have a lighter shade of red than the stickers on the right.


The differences in the shades of red are more easily noticeable than what the scan is showing.

1981 Fleer NFL Football Stickers - Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers

We've got 2 NFC North teams for today's installment of the ongoing review of the 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL Football Stickers:

Detroit Lions:

The helmet on the left has a gray facemask and the helmet on the right has a white facemask. In addition, the helmet on the left is dark gray with a dark blue lion while the helmet on the right has a lighter gray helmet with a lighter blue lion.



The same is true with the logo stickers. The sticker on the left has dark blue stripes behind the lion while the sticker on the right has gray stripes. In addition, the name Lions is in dark blue on the left and in light blue on the right on both the helmet and logo stickers.

Green Bay Packers:

As we've seen with a number of teams, once again we've got a facemask variation, with the helmet sticker having either a white or a green facemask.


The logo stickers can be found with the football player wearing either a light green or a brown uniform.

1981 Fleer NFL Football Stickers - Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos

Time for the next 2 teams on the ongoing review of the 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL Football Stickers:

Dallas Cowboys:

The Cowboys can be found with a darker shade of blue as seen on the star on the helmet as well as the team name on the left vs the lighter shade of blue on the right.


This same color variation is found on the logo stickers as well. Also note different shades of grey for both the helmet and logo stickers.

Denver Broncos:

There are 3 helmet variations for the Broncos. The first variation on the left is a light blue helmet with a red "D". The variation in the middle has a similarly colored helmet, but with an orange "D" (which unfortunately didn't show up very well on my scanner - take a look at the logo stickers below the helmets to get a better idea of the color difference). The variation on the right is a very dark (almost purple) helmet which also has an orange "D".


The logo stickers show the red/orange difference that is also found on the helmets. As was the case with the Browns variations I reviewed last time, my scanner is not doing as good a job showing the true difference in shades of color between orange and red as what you will see when you are looking at both stickers in person.

1981 Fleer NFL Football Stickers - Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns

For the 3rd installment of the review of the multitude of sticker variations in the 1981 Fleer Team Action NFL Football Stickers, we've got the Bengals and Browns:

Cincinnati Bengals:

Both the helmet and the logo stickers both have the same variations with either white or black facemasks and different shades of orange:


Cleveland Browns:

Just like with the Bengals, the Browns logo sticker is just a smaller version of the helmet. For the Browns, the variation is the color of the helmet. The stickers on the left have orange helmets while the stickers on the right are much closer to red.


The scanner didn't capture the color difference as well as I hoped, especially for the larger helmet stickers. If you are holding both stickers in your hand, the difference is much more evident that what this picture is showing. The difference shows up a bit better on the small helmet stickers in the picture.