The 1982 NFL season was shortened from sixteen games per team to nine because of a players’ strike. The NFL adopted a special 16-team playoff tournament; division standings were ignored, and the top eight teams from each conference earned playoff berths with seeds corresponding to their position in the conference standings. With the best record in the NFC, Washington received the number one seed in the conference for the playoff tournament. Although them and the Los Angeles Raiders had identical 8-1 records, the Redskins were the best in the league because they had a +62 point differential, which was 2 more than the Raiders.