Hey Seattle fans: Do you remember this ticket?

If you’ve got one like it (and God help the lonely 31,739 that bought one of these sorry tickets), you may have attended the lowest point in the Seattle Kingdome’s history, and part of the worst mistake the league has ever made.

SCAB FOOTBALL!

True, by score it looks like a routine 17-10 Cincinnati win. But anyone who lives through it remember this as one of three games when Boomer Esiason, Dave Krieg, James Brooks, Curt Warner (the original) and the rest of the superstars took a back seat to … the replacement players! (click here if you’re so desperate to bid on the ticket)

And if you’re reading this on Wednesday, October 4th, you’re sitting on the 20-year-anniversary of the FIRST replacement game in major sports history!

Tylenol? Bourbon? Tequila? Smith & Wesson? HELP!

On the ticketed game, the immortal Adrian Breen led the scab Bengals past the stellar Bruce Matthison and the scab Seahawks.

Don’t remember the 1987 strike? Too young for it?

You may be the luckiest person on the planet.

September 22nd, 1987 the NFL players decided to strike, but the owners (they thought) were ready. Expecting a long layoff (similar to one that nearly blew out eight weeks of the 1982 season) said owners had an idea: Bring in whoever wants to play, and let the real players decide if they wanted to cross the picket line.

And some did, but not enough to save the NFL from utter, sheer embarrasment: On Sunday, October 4th, 1987, NFL Stadium played replacement games in front of … two fans.

Or a few more. But not many.

Dolphins coach Don Shula held open tryouts, then not only taught the rag tag combo of former high school, junior college and college stars (and even a few over-the-hill workers at IBM, K-Mart and Kroger) the fundamentals, but how to huddle correctly on the sidelines. Eagles coach Buddy Ryan didn’t even bother to learn names. And Mike McCormack, the guy who was in charge of making the replacement Seattle Seahawks (or Scab-hawks as they were nicknamed), admitted he never saw a second of the three replacement games.

He’s a better man for it.

Many players actually did picket, and some blocked buses supposed to take replacement players to the stadium. But others did the unthinkable: They crossed the picket line and played. Anyone else remember Gary Hogeboom’s 5-touchdown first half at Buffalo in scab week 1? And the Saturday Night Live skit mocking it? (sorry, not even Youtube has that one).

My father and I attended one scab game: Sunday, October 18th, 1987, Cleveland at Cincinnati. And with good reason: Days before the game the players and owners reached a tentative agreement, but one that would start with October 25th’s games. Thus, technically this would be the final scab game, but Browns owner Art Modell persuaded backup quarterback Gary Danielson, running back Kevin Mack, wide receiver Brian Brennan and other regulars to cross the picket line and “beat our rivals”.

Bengals owner Paul Brown decided the player’s would return on Monday, and Cincinnati would run with Adrian Breen instead of Boomer Esiason.

Who would guess the Browns would win 34-0? (btw, for the overly proud Bengals fan who, at halftime, with Cincinnati trailing 24-0, bet the drunken, all-too-happy Browns fan $200 the Bengals would come back … do you know how much that dough would be worth today?)

Eight years later, Major League Baseball entered the 1995 season without a contract, and had replacement players ready to go. Thankfully, at the last moment, the two sides struck a contract, shortened the season by 18 games, and played ball … with Roger Clemens, not Roger Schwartz.

Twenty years since your scab days. Adrian, oh Adrian Breen … why the hell did any of us watch?