The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest (15 page)
Read The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest Online
Authors: Mike Ditka,Rick Telander
Payback Payoff: Memory Erased
I
t was time for some payback against the last team that had beaten the Bears, and this time the Bears were ready, unlike the last time they’d visited the Bay Area.
The Bears had been shut out and humiliated 23–0 by the 49ers in the 1984 NFC Championship Game, which left the Bears aware of how much higher they needed to go to gain elite status but also aware that it was within their reach.
The Bears simply crushed the 49ers, even if the score was still 19–10 with just under four minutes to play. They sacked Joe Montana seven times, the most of his career to that point, and San Francisco managed only 45 total yards and three first downs in the second half.
But the story for the Bears was on offense, where Walter Payton and the line clicked into a new gear. Payton rushed for 132 yards, his season high so far, and carried the ball 24 times in the kind of performance that had been missing.
Significantly, the Bears opened the game passing, despite being without Dennis McKinnon and Emery Moorehead because of injuries. Jim McMahon accounted for 115 passing yards in the first quarter, and the offense scored the first four times it had the ball. Payton scored on a three-yard run, and Kevin Butler converted three straight field goals as the Bears breezed to a 16–0 lead.
But the 49ers were Super Bowl champs, and Carlton Williamson returned an interception 43 yards for San Francisco’s first score before Ray Wersching kicked a field goal from 32 yards.
Willie Gault tries to control one of his three catches against the 49ers.
But that was all the 49ers could manage against a team determined to get some payback for the 1984 thrashing. The Bears put away the game on a 29-yard Butler field goal in the fourth quarter and Payton’s 17-yard touchdown run.
San Francisco coach Bill Walsh congratulates Mike Ditka after the Bears’ victory.
Coach Mike Ditka got a bit of payback of his own against San Francisco coach Bill Walsh, who had inserted guard Guy McIntyre as a fullback in the closing minutes of the title game. Ditka sent in defensive tackle William Perry as a running back and had him carry the ball on the final two plays, picking up two yards on each rush. The game ended, but Perry’s time in the spotlight was only beginning.
Chicago 26, San Francisco 10
OCT. 13, 1985, AT CANDLESTICK PARK
Payton, Butler star; Montana takes a licking
In an affront to 49ers coach Bill Walsh, William Perry debuted at fullback on the final two plays of the game.
Bears held offensive guru Walsh’s attack without a touchdown for just the second time in his career.
Bears running back Walter Payton breaks through a line of players for an 11- yard gain as San Francisco 49ers defensive end Jeff Stover (72) tries to bring Payton down on October 13, 1985, in San Francisco.
WILLIAM PERRY
No. 72, defensive tackle
“I
t’s still the same. People see me and say hello, say, ‘That’s the Fridge.’ Take a picture.”
“It started in San Francisco. That’s when I first ran the ball. Then on
Monday Night Football
[against the Packers] that’s where it all blew up and everybody saw me and took to me, and everything happened after that.”
“I was a running back way back in the day, but you get to professional ball and you can score touchdowns and all, now it’s just funny to me.”
“That was one crazy play [when he was in the backfield against Dallas]. I was supposed to go out and block on the cornerback. I went out and blocked on Everson Walls. Walter was going up the middle. I went and blocked on Walls, and we was out there talkin’ for a few seconds, and I look back and everybody was on Walter. I went back into the crowd that was tackling Walter and knocked everybody off and grabbed him and pulled him into the end zone. The referee said, ‘You can’t do that! You can’t do that!’ I said, ‘It’s done now.’”
“I couldn’t say too much about Walter. He was a great guy, a class act, a wonderful person on and off the field. We spent plenty of time going out to his places, his clubs, played pickup basketball together.”
“To me, Mike Ditka was a wonderful guy, a wonderful coach, a nice person, a great all-around guy. He’s the one that drafted me, and I appreciated that. He’s the one that gave me a chance and put me in the backfield and stuff. I still love him and appreciate him and give him the utmost respect.”
“My mother told me not to talk about people unless I can say something good about them. My mom and my dad brought 12 of us up, eight brothers and four sisters. She taught us well. She passed about 20 years ago. Most of us are having a great life. Some passed, and they had a great life. That’s why I say enjoy yourself; you never know what goes on.”
“Money is nothing. You can’t take it with you when you go to heaven. I use it as a tool to keep going.”
“I let them talk about [my weight]. I was happy then. I’m happy now.”
“The nickname came from Clemson. Me and the guys, we went out one night, having a couple beers, and we came back and there was an elevator in our dormitory. I was so big then and I walked through it, and a light was hanging down, and the guy behind me said, ‘You ain’t nothing but a walking refrigerator,’ and that’s how I got the name.”
“You’ve got to say the favorite moment was scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl. That’s what you work for the whole time, from peewee ball all the way through. You get the chance to score a touchdown, so I can’t say no more. That was the highlight of the whole thing.”
