30 for 30: The '85 Bears

CB4

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As someone who wasn't even 2 when this game was played, I have never known why that happened. What was the point?
The Bears routed the Pats in the game. Walter Payton had been a work horse running back for many years with the Bears in 1985. It would be the only Super Bowl that Payton would get to play in. There was the opportunity to get Walter a touchdown in a goal line situation. Instead, Ditka had McMahon give the ball to William "Refrigerator" Perry, a defensive tackle that had been use in blocking situations during the season.

Most feel that it should have been Payton's touchdown to score. Ditka and his DC Buddy Ryan pretty much had an ongoing public feud throughout the season. A lot it had to do with drafting Perry. Ditka wanted him. Ryan didn't. Ditka used Perry on offensive pretty much as a way to chide Ryan. And most feel giving Perry the ball and letting him score was Ditka "sticking it" to Buddy Ryan one more time.
 

BamaHoosier

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I watched the first half of it, and recorded the rest. Really was enjoying it, but I couldn't stay up any longer. It's amazing watching that compilation of characters achieving what they did.

I also found it funny when they interviewed a bunch of the defensive guys who acknowledged they'd be broke now from fines because of the way they used to hit their opponents. That was a D with a controlled nastiness. Fun to watch the clips.
 
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TideEngineer08

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The Bears routed the Pats in the game. Walter Payton had been a work horse running back for many years with the Bears in 1985. It would be the only Super Bowl that Payton would get to play in. There was the opportunity to get Walter a touchdown in a goal line situation. Instead, Ditka had McMahon give the ball to William "Refrigerator" Perry, a defensive tackle that had been use in blocking situations during the season.

Most feel that it should have been Payton's touchdown to score. Ditka and his DC Buddy Ryan pretty much had an ongoing public feud throughout the season. A lot it had to do with drafting Perry. Ditka wanted him. Ryan didn't. Ditka used Perry on offensive pretty much as a way to chide Ryan. And most feel giving Perry the ball and letting him score was Ditka "sticking it" to Buddy Ryan one more time.
Yet in reality, he stuck it to Walter Payton. I've never had much of an opinion on Ditka one way or another but I've got a negative one now.
 

CB4

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Yet in reality, he stuck it to Walter Payton. I've never had much of an opinion on Ditka one way or another but I've got a negative one now.
And much to the credit of Payton, he never said a word about it. Ditka, however, has said that he now regrets the decision. Still, like you, my opinion of Ditka is pretty low.
 

mikes12

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I'll definitely check out the show.

I was in 5th grade that year, and didn't care about sports at the time, but Superbowl XX was the first football game I watched from start to finish.
 

dvil doc

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I was in Chicagoland at a great time. The Bears and Bulls were hot and I went to Sox games before the old Comisky Park was leveled. Alabama even played there after one game. The band, not the football team.
 

TydDFens

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I watched it last night too and enjoyed it. It seemed like ESPN was trying to steer the show into the CTE topic. I thought it was interesting that all of the Bears they asked if they would do it all again answered the same way.
 

pluckngrit

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Yeah. Just one of the many reason's they didn't name the Man of the Year award after Ditka. Great as a player and coach, but a miserable human.
Seriously? BS!

Why don't you tell us why he's such a "miserable human". One reason.
 

B1GTide

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Yet in reality, he stuck it to Walter Payton. I've never had much of an opinion on Ditka one way or another but I've got a negative one now.
There was more to it than that. First, no one had a clue that Payton was going to die. Second, Payton had just won the NFL MVP and the offensive player of the year award, and the Bears were far and away the best team in football. Everyone expected that the Bears would be back in the Super Bowl, with Payton leading the way, even with Payton so "old" in football years. Finally, Payton was virtually shut down in that game. The Pats' game plan was to stop Payton and take their chances with McMahon. They had no plan to deal with the defense and turned the ball over a bunch of times.

The defense won that game, and it was fitting that a defensive player got to score on a play like that. I am sure that Ditka would have made a different decision if he knew that Payton would die so young, or that Payton would never get to another Super Bowl. Heck, it wasn't even the 4th quarter. Payton might have had an opportunity to score again in that game for all anyone knew at the time.

Hindsight is 20-20.
 

Crimson1967

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Payton dying young has nothing to do with it. Yes, it was the third quarter, but it was 37-3. They could have gotten back down there, but you never know. Ditka should have given him the ball.

I'm not saying that makes him a horrible person, but he was wrong not to give Payton a chance to score.


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B1GTide

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Payton dying young has nothing to do with it. Yes, it was the third quarter, but it was 37-3. They could have gotten back down there, but you never know. Ditka should have given him the ball.

I'm not saying that makes him a horrible person, but he was wrong not to give Payton a chance to score.
You guys act like he never gave Payton a chance to score in that game. Go read the play by play. Payton had MANY chances to score, handed the ball inside the 10 yard line many times in that game. NE was keying on him down there and he was getting stuffed.

In that game, McMahon ran it in twice from down close, and Perry ran it in once. Payton had double their carries down there and didn't make it once. That is not on Ditka. What is he supposed to do? Let Payton become further embarrassed by giving him the ball where he has no chance to score because every player on NE's defense is keying on him?
 

Con

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Just watched it and I really enjoyed it. It was really touching how it ended with the letter. You could tell the bond the had with Coach Buddy Ryan was strong.


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selmaborntidefan

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I have not seen this but I sure will.


I was a junior in high school when this happened so I can give you a perspective from the teenage Falcons fan at the time.

Go back to the 1980s. It was dominated by teams that quite frankly were loud mouths and often in the news for things other than their magnificent play. Oh, and they were predominantly African-American (henceforth, black). Teams like the Miami Hurricanes, Georgetown Hoyas, Detroit Pistons, even to a certain extent the Oakland A's. Called 'thugs' and the term stuck (not so much with Oakland).

But then there was an exception that rule - the 1985 Chicago Bears, again, a predominantly black team and one that talked - but one that did it in a somewhat different, almost inevitably attractive way. The Bears had some talkers like Otis Wilson, who all but predicted a shutout in the Super Bowl against the Patriots. But mostly they were a bunch of fun-loving charismatic guys who won over the fans with their excellent football. Unlike Georgetown (for example), who had a player practically punch a white Villanova player just as they were heading into halftime of that 1985 contest (but it wasn't a foul - you see, since the clock had already expired for halftime, it wasn't a foul. I'm serious) or Miami, whose players would come out and talk all matter of trash into the mic weeks before the game......the Bears talked but almost in a lovable "aw shucks" kind of way. Besides - their biggest eccentric on the Bears was a white guy, quarterback Jim McMahon.

The Bears kind of slipped under the radar. In 1983, they ended the year on a 5-1 run and missed the playoffs by a game. In 1984, they went 10-6 and made the NFC championship but nobody really gave them a notice. And why should they? The 1984 Bears won 7 of their ten games against a VERY weak NFC Central division (no other team was above .500 and only one, Green Bay, was 8-8). Nobody respected them because their other wins were against 7-9 New Orleans and two overrated teams from the AFC West, Denver and the LA Raiders (who went 0-2 in the playoffs that year, Denver losing at home to a mediocre Pittsburgh team).

So why would anybody think Chicago was really any good? The 49ers, the epitome of class in the 1980s, even denigrated the Bears after blowing them out, 23-0, which was not the norm for San Fran back then.


1) Nobody really noticed the Bears until their 44-0 blowout of the Dallas Cowboys on national TV on November 17, 1985.

Go back and look at their schedule and you see why. Yes, the Bears went into that game at 10-0 but SEVEN of those wins yet again were against the incredibly weak NFC Central (combined record of other four teams was 24-40). The one exception, of course, was William "the Refrigerator" Perry, who sprung to life when he carried the ball for a touchdown against Green Bay on October 21 in a Monday night game with the whole world watching. You have to remember something - that was during the 1985 World Series and aired on the same network, ABC. That was the first year of the format where four World Series games were played across the two weekends with ALL games in prime time. So aside from the NFL audience they had a build-up of fans who would have been tuning in to watch sports on ABC anyway.

By the next morning, the networks were all over the story of the Fridge scoring against Green Bay and because Perry had a cute smile and lovable personality they were making McDonald's commercials (fittingly) within the week. But a number of juvenile Danny Kanells (if I may speak anachronistically) were ridiculing the Bears and saying the Bears 'had not really played anybody.' And the facts do justify that up to a point. Aside from blowing out their overmatched NFC Central foes, guess who else the Bears had played entering week 11?

1) New England, who was 7-3 but had started 2-3 and nobody knew if they were any good or not.....and the Bears had only beaten them 20-7
2) defending world champion San Francisco, who was 3-2 when they played the Bears and had lost to the Vikings and Saints, suggesting they weren't very good either, and who had to catch fire to sneak into the playoffs as a wildcard
3) the Washington Redskins, whom they blew out, but who were 5-5 with two losses to the Cowboys entering the games of November 17

(Historical note: it was the next evening when Joe Theismann's career ended thanks to Lawrence Taylor)


So the Bears were not overly thought of as a really good team until November.


And then they laid waste to the Dallas Cowboys with the entire nation watching. It was quite simply one of the most dominant performances you will ever see. Dallas only got 178 total yards and turned it over five times. Dallas was 7-3 entering the game and the Vegas line was 'pick 'em.' Nobody noticed Chicago until they absolutely smoked America's Team with the entire nation watching. It was absolute devastation.

From that moment on all of a sudden, everybody, especially the legions of Cowboy haters (including myself) was on the bandwagon. Mike Singletary after that game snorted that "people said we hadn't played nobody. I guess we still haven't played nobody." And Dan Hampton even noted that they HAD to beat Dallas, pointing out that even if they went 15-1 and won the Super Bowl, fans would have said, "Yeah, but you couldn't beat Dallas." For those who don't remember, Dallas was viewed at that time about like New England is now - you either loved them or hated them, there was no in between.


2) There was a LOT of tension between Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan.

A lot of you don't know this but Buddy Ryan had a long history of success in the NFL prior to the 1985 Bears. He was a coach on the 1964 and 1965 Buffalo Bills that won the AFL title, the 1968 Jets who upset the Colts, and the 1976 Vikings, who lost Super Bowl XI to the Raiders. Ryan was kept on staff when Ditka was hired in 1982. And they didn't see eye to eye. Perry was just a flash point of the disagreement between the two. Ditka would bring Perry in on offense merely to be, well, a jerk. After Ryan was gone to coach Philly, Ditka even blew his stack and said that never again would a defensive coordinator get as much credit as that one had for what the team was in 1985. And Ditka had a point - how many CASUAL NFL fans know who the defensive coordinator is of ANY team? But everybody knew Buddy Ryan by the time of the Super Bowl.

3) The Super Bowl Shuffle was released at just the right time.

The 1980s brought us music videos. That's a little unfair.....the Monkees did that back in 1966, but MTV showed those things 24/7. So the Bears record a rap song that was actually quite amusing. It didn't come across as a putdown and they were donating the money to feeding the hungry, which was the big social conscience thing in 1985 (that's the same year as "USA For Africa"). And most of all they recorded it right after their only loss of the season to Miami on December 2.

Here was a funky video that fans that didn't even know about the Bears saw rotate constantly on the playlist. And you couldn't get away from it. EVERYBODY knew the Super Bowl shuffle, and it inspired parodies from other folks.

4) The Enigma of Walter Payton and the Touchdown That Never Came

Now I'm gonna tick some people off. Hey, I liked Walter, too. But we now know thanks to Jeff Pearlman (whom I despise for his hypocrisy) that Walter was to a large degree a manufactured creation. He was NOT like Kirby Puckett, a phony who had no time for anyone once his playing days were over, but he posed as the Christian family man while sampling the forbidden fruit on the side to say nothing of the fact he was trying to have BOTH his wife AND girlfriend at his induction ceremony in Canton.

It's also a popular myth that Walter was never upset about that touchdown he didn't get a chance to score. That isn't true. And you don't have to rely on my memory, simply see what was being said at the time.

Bob Verdi, Chicago columnist:

`I was upset, a little hurt,`` said the star running back after practice with the NFC squad for Sunday`s Pro Bowl. ``Was. Not now. I got over it right away. You know how it is. You work all these years, you want to do well in a big game, and then, something like that takes away from the moment.``

Payton was visibly disturbed in the locker room afterward and remained in the trainers` quarters several minutes before consenting to be interviewed about not being called on to carry the ball in a couple of short-yardage situations. Jim McMahon and William Perry each tallied from a yard out within four minutes of the third quarter.

``Maybe (coach) Mike Ditka got caught up in the game and didn`t notice it,`` said Payton, referring to the thousands of Louisiana Superdome spectators who were shouting his name.


Or his teammate Brian Baschnagel, who missed the game with a knee injury. He, too, had been through some terrible years:

"For the 10 years I had played with him, Walter claimed it didn't matter how many yards he got, how many touchdowns he scored—it was about winning," said Brian Baschnagel, the veteran receiver who, because of a season-ending knee injury, watched the game from above in the coaches' box. "That was the attitude I took, too. I didn't care how many passes I caught, as long as the Bears won. And I always felt Walter felt the exact same way. But when he reacted the way he did . . . it was the exact opposite of what he had claimed to be as an athlete."


I realize it's not popular to make that point, but it's the truth, like it or not. Now to be fair - I'll spot Payton a little bit here because to my knowledge he never again brought it up and perhaps the emotion of finally achieving the goal of playing in the game and all that stuff overwhelmed him. I try not to judge any of them too harshly in the immediate glare after a game because if you lose, you say things that can be frustration but make you appear to be a sore loser.

In Super Bowl XX, Payton rushed 22 times for 61 yards with a long carry of seven. Also, he fumbled away on his very first carry - which was the one he gained seven yards on btw - and it led to the Patriots first three points of the game. Matt Suhey had nearly as many yards in half as many carries as Payton did.

When the game was still tied, Payton was given the ball on second and two at the Pats five-yard line and got one yard. On first and goal from the three, he got hit for a two-yard loss. On first and goal at the Pats four in the 2nd quarter, Payton got the ball - he got two yards.

The man got THREE carries inside the five-yard line and got ONE yard. How anyone can say Payton wasn't given the chance to score a TD is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Perry scored his TD to make it 44-3 with 2:21 left in the THIRD quarter. The Bears got the ball back after the safety that put them up, 46-10, and Payton was given the chance to be Derrick Henry against LSU.....run out the clock, go down the field, and get a TD. He got three carries for nine yards and the Bears punted. With 7:57 left in the game, the Bears got ANOTHER first and goal at the 5-yard line.

Payton got the ball on first down and got one yard. He got it on second down and got one yard. Chicago then got penalized for an illegal block that put them back ten yards. On fourth down and goal at the Patriots 11-yard line, the Bears passed up the field goal and handed the ball to.......Walter Payton. He got six yards.

Walter Payton got FIVE carries inside the five-yard line out of his total of 22 carries. He got SIX TOTAL carries when the Bears were in an 'and goal' situation. In the five carries inside the five, the NFL's all-time leading rusher (at that time) got a total of THREE yards.


Walter Payton got more carries inside the five-yard line that any other player on the Bears. How can anyone say he wasn't given a chance to score a TD?

Maybe the Patriots focused on him like Auburn did Ingram in 2009. Doesn't matter. You'd think the NFL's leading all-time rusher could do something, he sure managed to do it when he didn't have much of an O-line in the 1970s.

Two final points on this: 1) Ditka has since admitted he was wrong; and 2) McMahon has said that he should have bypassed the play to Fridge and given it to Payton from the one anyway.


That's all I have to say for now.

RTR
 

dvil doc

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My daughter was born on 17 November 1987 at Naval Hospital, Great Lakes, Illinois. After I determined she and my wife were OK, I went to the Dad's lounge and watched da Bears dismantle the Boys. Danny White was knocked out with a concussion. It was a great season and I still have Bears gear from that era.

As I wrote above, the NFC championship game was a great experience. It is the only pro game I've been to that compares to being at a Bama game. I no longer pull for the Bears. I'm trying to be a Skins fan but they make it difficult.
 

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