Ivy Replacements

If you haven't seen the latest ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, "The Year of the Scab," I suggest you check it out. It was simply excellent.

The film mostly focused on the eventual 1987 Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins and how the replacement players who came to Washington during the brief players strike crossed picket lines to get that one chance at glory.

It got me wondering how many former Ivy football players were among all the league's replacements who played for three games before the strike ended with the union giving in.

I always knew Columbia RB John Chirico '87 had been a replacement player and even scored a TD for his hometown N.Y. Jets, but I was not so sure about anyone else.

Thanks to some easy research on the Pro Football Reference website, I got my answer.

A total of five Ivy players graced replacement rosters in 1987:

WR Keiron Bigby-Brown Redskins

RB John Chirico-Columbia Jets

QB Jim Crocicchia-Penn Giants

DB Chip Nuzzo-Princeton Bills

RB John Tagliaferri-Cornell Dolphins

Here's an article about how Crocicchia got a big start for the Giants .

And Brown and Yale fans should remember Bigby who, playing as a DB, returned two Yale passes for TD's in a 1984 Bruin win.