Gridiron Cup, 1982: Part I (Gridiron Cup, 1982 Trilogy) by Keegan Dresow

The year is 1982. American Football is the world’s most popular sport. The Soviet national gridiron team, formed at the pounding of Joseph Stalin’s iron fist, has not lost a game since 1970. A team of American legends is assembled to travel to Moscow for the world’s biggest sporting event, the Gridiron Cup.

Gridiron Cup, 1982 asks: what if? What if American football became the world’s most popular sport in the aftermath of World War II? What if, every four years, the best 16 teams in the world met to determine the world’s best team? What if the hard hitting Pacific Islanders played against Nigeria’s “nightmare” defense? What if the speedy Caribbean All-Stars met Poland’s power? What if Great Britain’s discipline faced Brazil’s creativity? What if Mexico’s grit squared off against West Germany’s efficiency?

What if the Soviet Union devoted all of its resources and revolutionary training methods towards developing the best team that the world has ever seen, using gridiron as a proxy to prove their philosophical and physical dominance over the Americans?

The Gridiron Cup Trilogy tells the story of the greatest sporting event in the world, and of an American team on a mission to defeat the Red Machine in 1982.