The New York Giants came into the 1982 season fresh off their first playoff appearance in 18 seasons. Optimism was high with a defense led by second-year linebacker Lawrence Taylor, and Phil Simms was poised to reclaim his perch as the team’s starting quarterback.
But Simms, who missed the final month and a half of the 1981 season with a separated shoulder, would not get the opportunity to advance the Giants’ surge back to prominence as he tore ligaments in his knee during a preseason game against the Jets.
Behind Scott Brunner once again, the magic wasn’t there this time around for the Giants in ’82. They lost their first two games to open the season before the NFLPA decided to embark on a strike, which lasted 57 days.
In Week 2, the Giants hosted the Green Bay Packers on a Monday night. With the strike looming, the stadium had a pall over it as the talk was that the season would end after the game.
The Giants took an early 12-0 lead in the game, which was interrupted twice in the second quarter by power outages. Many in the stands (present company included) thought the owners or the league was trying to send the players a message. Instead, it was just the ineptitude of PSE&G.
The Giants lost their power after the outages. Fans were treated to a large dose of future Hall of Fame wideout James Lofton, who took an end around 83 yards for a touchdown while catching four passes for another 101 yards.
Green Bay outscored the Giants 27-7 the rest of the game to send the fans home with a deflating feeling. The Giants’ depressing 0-2 start was bad enough, but now they were faced with the prospect of no football for a while as the two sides were miles apart from a deal.
When the dispute was resolved in mid-November, the NFL decided to play the rest of the schedule, which had seven weeks remaining, and set up an ad hoc postseason process to determine who would go to the Super Bowl.
The Giants lost the first game after the break to the eventual Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins. They then reeled off three straight wins only to lose two of the final three games, falling one game short of the playoffs.
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