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1987 Replacement Rosters

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:40 am
by CraigRye
I've just been doing some work on Miami Dolphins roster moves and noticed this from 1987.

After the last replacement game Miami waived the vast majority of the replacement players before their next game (wk 7 25-Oct-87 v Buffalo) the first non replacement game. However according to the Dolphins' own Media Guide the following players were not waived until 26-10-87 the day after the Buffalo game. The Dolphins had a full active roster of 45 for the game and 5 on the Inactive list, which I believe was reduced from the 10 during the Replacement games. The replacement players who were not included in any of those rosters were:

Bill Bealles, OT, Willie Beecher, K, Leland Douglas, WR, Greg Ours, C, Tim Pidgeon, LB, Lawrence Sampleton, TE, Duke Schamel, LB, Ronald Scott, RB, Robert Sowell, CB, Derek Wimberly, DE (27-10-87), Jeff Wiska, OG

Does anyone know if teams had roster exemptions right after the replacement games, was the Inactive list increased or remained at 10 for that game or do people thing there may be an error in the date players were waived and it should actually be before the Buffalo game?

Re: 1987 Replacement Rosters

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 12:36 pm
by TodMaher

Re: 1987 Replacement Rosters

Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:39 am
by CraigRye
Thanks for the reply Tod. I have been using the info in the link for a while now and find it very useful for my work on the Dolphins game rosters.

However on there it shows that the 1987 Inactive list of 10 was only for weeks 5 and 6 (the second two replacement games) but I think that the Inactive list was also there for the week 4 games. If you look at the Miami @ Seattle gamebook it shows 9 Inactive players for Seattle. Also when I have been looking at the Dolphins roster moves it shows that there were 10 players not on the active roster in the gamebook but they had not been waived.

My original question still stands though, is it more likely that Dolphins Media book has the wrong dates for the waiving of those last replacement players or something else.

Re: 1987 Replacement Rosters

Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:59 am
by TodMaher
CraigRye wrote:Thanks for the reply Tod. I have been using the info in the link for a while now and find it very useful for my work on the Dolphins game rosters.

However on there it shows that the 1987 Inactive list of 10 was only for weeks 5 and 6 (the second two replacement games) but I think that the Inactive list was also there for the week 4 games. If you look at the Miami @ Seattle gamebook it shows 9 Inactive players for Seattle. Also when I have been looking at the Dolphins roster moves it shows that there were 10 players not on the active roster in the gamebook but they had not been waived.

My original question still stands though, is it more likely that Dolphins Media book has the wrong dates for the waiving of those last replacement players or something else.
OK. Did some research and there was a 40-man (yes 40) inactive list for week 5 - the final week of the replacement games.

Re: 1987 Replacement Rosters

Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2020 1:27 am
by CraigRye
Thanks again Tod for looking into this, I also received some paper clippings (thanks to Mike Oszuscik) that show the 40 man inactive list was in place for the week 7 first non replacement game (25-Oct-1987 Miami at Buffalo).

Some of the extracts:

Miami Herald (Sat 24-Oct-1987)
That was the word given to nine Dolphin replacement players Friday. All were told they would be among the victims next week when teams are required to cut from a maximum of 40 to a maximum of 10 on the nonactive roster.

The Palm Beach Post (Mon 27-Oct-1987)
The Dolphins officially released 10 replacement players Monday ..... That leaves nine replacement players on the roster ..... The Dolphins will have to release one of those players by 4pm today to meet the 55-player limit. Shula will deactivate 10 players by Saturday's 4pm deadline.

Now I think I am going to investigate signing up to Newspapers.com

Re: 1987 Replacement Rosters

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 11:58 am
by TodMaher
You're right it was 40 inactive for those two weeks.