The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest (40 page)
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Authors: Mike Ditka,Rick Telander
“Weeb Ewbank hired me as an assistant coach for the New York Jets, and we only had four coaches back in those days, so you had to do it all—you had to draft, you had to scout, you had to coach. You learned a lot under Weeb.”
“Joe Namath was a great player. He was a leader. He was the one who made it happen. Wore his white shoes.”
“I had four brothers and two sisters. We were poor, but we didn’t know it. We had clean clothes to wear and always had food on the table. We had great togetherness, really.”
“I worked digging ditches and building roads, all kinds of things, anything that paid.”
“I had a bunch of tough players over the years. Wilber Marshall was a tough guy. Otis Wilson was a tough guy. Gerry Philbin was a tough guy with the Jets. Then I had Alan Page and Carl Eller and Jim Marshall. Jerome Brown was a super-tough guy. I told you before, we looked for brains and toughness. Dumb guys get you beat, and cowards get you beat.”
“I don’t think there’s anything misunderstood. You pretty well get what you see, don’t you?”
Super Bowl XX
Mercy!
T
he Bears were far and away the most dominant team in football in 1985, so it was only appropriate that they wrapped up a storybook season with the most dominant performance in Super Bowl history. After taking Bourbon Street by storm during a week of frenzied buildup, they turned their attention to football and pulverized the New England Patriots 46–10 at the New Orleans Superdome. The game was so one-sided it evoked comparisons with an earlier Bears team’s 73–0 destruction of the Washington Redskins in the 1940 NFL title game, football’s previous standard for utter annihilation.
“Right now I’m so happy I could jump up to the top of the Superdome,” All-Pro linebacker Mike Singletary said after orchestrating a defensive effort that drove New England quarterback Tony Eason from the game after six feeble possessions. The Patriots actually scored first, converting a fumble into a field goal after Jim McMahon and Walter Payton missed connections on a handoff. The short-lived 3–0 lead deprived the Bears of an opportunity for a third straight postseason shutout. But by the time backup QB Steve Grogan got the Pats on the board again, it was 44–3. Grogan was then sacked for a fourth-quarter safety, making the 46–10 final score especially poignant because it was the “46” defense the Bears used to lay waste to the NFL all season.
“The game was never in question,” coach Mike Ditka said.
Ditka, the star tight end on the Bears’ last championship team in 1963, joined the Raiders’ Tom Flores as the only men to play for and coach a Super Bowl champion. Ditka said he’d cherish this ring more, while remaining in debt to franchise founder George S. Halas, the late Papa Bear, who coached the ’63 champions and who gave Ditka the chance to coach the Bears.
William Perry dives for a one-yard touchdown that added controversy to Super Bowl XX.
Cornerback Reggie Phillips charges in with a 28-yard interception for a touchdown.
“What you do in life by yourself doesn’t mean as much as what you accomplish with a group of people,” Ditka said. “It’s because of Mr. Halas that I’m here. I’m just trying to pay some dues.”
McMahon, whose antics in the week leading up to the game left him a marked man, responded with the sort of insouciant effectiveness that characterized his play all season. He completed 12 of 20 passes for 256 yards, setting up his own two touchdown runs and a third by Matt Suhey. “We could have got to 60 points, but we ran out of time,” McMahon said. “And I would like to have seen a goose egg up there for them.”
Willie Gault caught four passes for 129 yards, and charismatic 308-pound rookie William Perry bulldozed through the dazed Pats for his fourth touchdown of the season in the third quarter. That score, though, ignited the game’s biggest controversy. Walter Payton, the proud face of the Bears franchise in some of its bleakest years, was denied an opportunity to score a Super Bowl touchdown.
Payton led the Bears with 61 yards on 22 carries but failed to score.
“I wanted to get Walter into the end zone,” Ditka insisted. “But our plays are designed to score, and I didn’t know who had the ball.”
“I feel very sad for No. 34,” McMahon said.
Hurt feelings aside, it’s a safe bet the Bears could have won without Payton and McMahon, so superior was their defense. They held the AFC champions to 123 total yards and 12 first downs, none in the first 25 minutes.
The defense also contributed to the point barrage when rookie cornerback Reggie Phillips returned a third-quarter interception 28 yards for a touchdown. Defensive end Richard Dent, leader of the pass rush that sent Eason scurrying for cover, was voted the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player, but the Bears would have been just as happy if the award had gone to Buddy Ryan, architect of their fearsome defense.
“Buddy is the MVP of our defense,” Singletary said. “He’s a step ahead of everybody else. If it wasn’t for him, what happened today wouldn’t have happened. He’s a real genius.”
Singletary and his cohorts showed their appreciation at the final gun. As Ditka was being carried off the field, several defensive players hoisted Ryan to their shoulders and accorded him a similar tribute.
“I can’t tell you how I feel about these guys,” Ryan said. “They started off terrible this year. They gave up 28 points in the first game and were ranked 25th in the league. But they kept working like dogs to get it done. They did everything they could to be No. 1. That’s what makes me so proud of these kids.
