How Fleer Stickers Solved the Mystery of the Lost NFL Games

It seems like we can now find just about any piece of information that we want by searching the internet. However, I was surprised to find out that there was one area of information that until now was nowhere to be found - the list of NFL games that were canceled due to the 1982 players strike.

However, thanks to the 1982 Fleer Team Action Football stickers with the team schedules on the back


we now have the answer!

Earlier this year, I received an e-mail from Jon asking if I could provide scans of the backs of the 1982 Fleer Football stickers. He told me he had been trying to piece together the 1982 NFL schedule so that he could then figure out which games had been lost to the strike.

With so much information available online, you would think that the 1982 NFL schedule would have been something that you could find with a bit of research. Unfortunately, the only information that was available was on the games that had actually been played that season. He was unable to find information on the games that were originally scheduled, but never played.

In doing his research, he came across my post on the 1982 Fleer Football stickers, and decided to contact me to see if I would be willing to help him with his project by providing scans of the backs of the stickers so that he could reconstruct the full season.

I was glad to help, and after providing him with the scans, he sent me the link to the Wikipedia page for Canceled NFL Games where he has detailed the schedules for all the weeks that were lost in 1982, as well as listing all other known games that have been canceled over the years, including 1987 when the NFL used replacement players for a few weeks. Jon also created a web page where he talks about the project, and where he has posted the backs of all the stickers to show the complete 1982 schedule.

With the NFL labor situation seeming to change almost daily, hopefully things get worked out in time to avoid the current NFL lockout from adding any more games to Jon's list of canceled games.

I'd like to say Thanks to Jon for getting in touch with me so I could put those sticker backs to good use!