The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest (26 page)

The world can judge you how it wants. I remember we went to London in the summer of 1986. We were playing an exhibition game against the Cowboys at Wembley Stadium for all these ga-ga Englishmen, and we are the rage of the island. This was the NFL’s big push into Europe, going global. People had T-shirts with the Fridge on them, No. 72, running with the football. They’d sprint right past Walter Payton to get to Perry. Everybody was famous, though. Willie Gault had stuff going on, and Matt Suhey visited the stock exchange, and, yes, Walter was very important. But he wasn’t literally huge, like Perry. The cover of
Sports Illustrated
even showed Fridge with the Cowboys’ “Too Tall” Jones standing next to one of the Queen’s Royal Guardsmen. I said in a press conference, “I have the best running back in the history of the game, and all you want to know about is a lineman!”

So anyway, back to 1985. Around the time of our Jets game, Gastineau was getting all of the pub. That didn’t bother me. He was a good player, but the New York media made him a lot better than he was. I mean, he couldn’t carry Dent’s or Hampton’s jock strap. He’s got a sack dance? Why would you want to do that if you’re good and you know it? What does waving your arms around have to do with anything?
Look at me, I’m great!
Prove it by playing.

People said I was doing too many off-field things? My team was? If you still play hard on Sunday, which is when the games are played, that’s all that matters. If the players can make a few bucks off the field, good. As for me, I was fully dedicated. To the critics, I said screw you. Besides, I wasn’t doing that much, mostly just the TV show with Johnny.

We had one more regular-season game to go,
against the Lions, who were an average team. It was there in Detroit, in their stupid dome, but if we played our game and never made mistakes like in the Miami game, we couldn’t be beat. Before that game the Pro Bowl teams were announced, and we had eight guys make the roster—Payton, Hampton, Dent, Covert, Hilgenberg, Singletary, Wilson, and even Dave Duerson, who was shocked as shit. They all deserved it. But so did Fencik and Van Horne and Marshall and about five other guys.

Some of the hoopla came from another thing, though. A bunch of the guys, 10 of them, including Payton, Fridge, Fuller, and McMahon, had used one of their off-days to make some kind of rap video. It was Willie Gault’s idea, I think, along with some producer. Willie had asked me to be in it, but I’d taken a pass. Dancing? Singing? Are you kidding? You can laugh, because I’ve done a lot of nutty stuff, such as wear a tuxedo in a “wedding portrait” with my “bride,” Ricky Williams, and act in a soccer movie. But I didn’t give a crap about this thing. Plus, I remembered what that nun had said to me about singing. I didn’t even know what this video was about, but real soon I see these giant ads and it’s called “The Super Bowl Shuffle”!

My God, we have another regular-season game to play and then we’ll have to win two more games in the playoffs just to go to the Super Bowl. Talk about jumping the gun. But hey, I admired the guys’ confidence, if that’s what it was. A lot of people already hated us. Like I seemed to be saying more and more:
screw ’em.

So we go to Detroit and we win our finale 37–17. Dennis Gentry—little Pinkie—runs a kickoff back for a touchdown, the first against the Lions in five years. And Wilbur Marshall hits quarterback Joe Ferguson so hard right under the chin that you can see Ferguson is unconscious even before he hits the turf. When Wilbur got fined later by the league, I thought it was bullcrap. I mean, the refs hadn’t even called a penalty.

It was an odd game. Even though we won pretty easily, the game bothered me. It was blah. I was certain a good team would beat us, maybe embarrass us. Well, I wasn’t certain of that, but I feared it. I couldn’t get the Dolphins game out of my mind. William Perry even picked up a fumble and ran until somebody jumped on him. But it didn’t matter.

The locker room was very quiet. Everybody knew we had only one goal now that we no longer could go undefeated. And this little win had nothing to do with it. “Maybe we shouldn’t do too many ‘Super Bowl Shuffles,’” I said to the media. I didn’t mean that. But I didn’t want this thing to get away from us. I was tense and cranky.

We would have home-field advantage all through the playoffs, and we were going to start off against the winner of the 49ers-Giants wild-card game. We had two weeks to kill.

We needed to get shuffling.

M
ike Ditka played for Dallas for four years and coached there under Tom Landry for nine more. But perhaps no game had more meaning for him than the Bears’ lopsided victory in Game 11. In Ditka’s first regular-season visit to Texas Stadium since his coaching stint ended, his Bears handed the Cowboys their worst defeat in franchise history and their first shutout in 15 years.

How dominant was the Bears’ defense? Midway through the fourth quarter of a 44-point uprising, the Bears had scored only one offensive touchdown. Richard Dent and Mike Richardson returned first-half interceptions for touchdowns, and punter Maury Buford continually pinned the Cowboys in uncomfortable positions.

The result: Dallas never penetrated beyond the Bears’ 38-yard line. In fact, five of the Cowboys’ first six running plays failed to achieve the line of scrimmage.

Early in the second quarter, linebacker Otis Wilson collared Danny White on a blitz. The quarterback was knocked out when he hit the turf. White returned to start the second half, but Wilson knocked him out again. While White sat, the Bears tormented backup Gary Hogeboom into three interceptions.

Meanwhile, the offense put 378 total yards on the board and controlled the ball for 35:18, all with Jim McMahon sitting out again with a sore shoulder. Steve Fuller threw for 164 yards and kept a steady hand on the offensive throttle.

Otis Wilson swivels the head of the Cowboys’ Danny White during a third-quarter sack, knocking White from the game.

Late in the first half, Ditka sent William Perry into the offensive lineup. On first down from the 2, Perry took a handoff to the 1-yard line. Fuller plunged in on the next play, and it was 24–0 with nearly three minutes left until halftime. The rout was so complete that Ditka rested Fuller for the last 10 minutes in favor of rookie Mike Tomczak.

Willie Gault catches a pass in front of Cowboys defender Ron Fellows.

Kevin Butler kicked three field goals. His first was a career-long 44 yards. Then he bested that with a 46-yarder. Walter Payton gained 100 yards for the sixth game in a row, one short of the NFL record. He finished with 132 rushing yards on 22 carries.

The Bears’ 11–0 start was the NFL’s best since 1972 and allowed them to clinch the NFC Central with five weeks remaining. But Ditka’s best memory had to be the sight of fair-weather Dallas fans streaming toward the exits after three quarters, their team hopelessly behind.

Chicago 44, Dallas 0
NOV. 17, 1985, AT TEXAS STADIUM

Coach’s roots make blowout win special

Hampton’s force of a Danny White interception. The defensive end cart wheeled his blocker, jumped into White’s face, and batted the ball, which Richard Dent grabbed for the one-yard touchdown that started the rout.

The Bears intercepted three passes in the first half.