THE ’85 BEARS: THE GREATEST TEAM EVER?

9/12/16

While I probably should have started this new Bear blog with a less controversial topic, like abortion, I decided to dive right into the Big One for Bear fans:   the ’85 Bears as the best team ever.

The other night my wife and I watched the WTTW special “ ’85:  The Greatest Team in Pro Football History.”   It was magnificent.   Well written, well thought out, well argued.   The commentators ranged from Mike Singletary and Jim McMahon to George Wendt and Bill Murray.   The writers even threw in a few local young comedians who, not being an aficionado of popular culture, yours truly did not recognize, but who added a trans-generational flavor to the show.   The writers even cleverly included Phil Simms, who felt the full wrath of that vicious Bear defense in the playoffs, and Dan Marino, who skillfully declawed that same otherwise ferocious defense in the Bears’ only loss that year.

Like the recent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the same subject, “ ‘85” argued convincingly that the Bears of that magical season were indeed the best NFL team ever.   Not only were they great ballplayers, but they were amazing characters:   Ditka, Ryan, Singletary, Fridge, Walter, Dent, McMahon, Gault, Otis, Duerson, Fencik, Plank…the list goes on and could never be fully inclusive.  The Bears of ’85 were indeed an athletic and cultural icon that will not be forgotten for a long, long time.   (I have learned over time that only a fool uses words like “never,” so I refrained from using it in the last sentence.)

As I said in my introductory post, “WHAT THE HELL DO THEEXPERTS KNOW?”, I was a huge fan of the ’85 Bears.   After Mike Ditka sort of took over the team (Never forget Buddy Ryan and the defense.) and the Bears began the multi-year march to the Super Bowl, I started to get interested in the Bears again after a several year hibernation period in my fandom born of a realization that while watching the greatest running back ever was entertaining, the joy was offset by continually falling short of any kind of proximity to the championship.   During the ‘85 season, I attended several games, including the Super Bowl.  That trip to New Orleans was one of the great weekends in my life up to that point; more on that in a less circumspect post.   The general point is that I was as big a fan of the resurgent Bears as anybody; finally, a team better than my beloved ’65 Bears represented the world’s greatest city on the gridiron.  I, my city, and much of the country, and even the world, reveled in it.

All that having been said, yours truly feels compelled to add some clear-eyed insight into the ’85 Bear mania.

First, it’s pathetic that we Bear fans are still celebrating and pounding our chests over a team that went to the Super Bowl 30 years ago.   In that span of time….

·         The Iron Curtain has fallen.

·         We have had five presidents, four of whom have served two terms.

·         Everyone has gained access to the internet in one fashion or another.

·         My wife and I have had three children, all of whom are either in college or have finished college.

·         Many of you have been born.

·         The Bears reached the Super Bowl once and were humiliated on national television.

Perhaps even more to the point, how many times have the Patriots, whom the Bears humiliated in the ’86 Super Bowl, gone to, and won, the Super Bowl?   How many times have the Bears’ nemeses to the north, the Packers, gone to and won the Super Bowl?   Plenty of times; I’d tell you the exact numbers but I’m trying to refrain from Googling while writing these missives.

While those who see the positive sides of life revel in the joy that the ’85 Bears brought us, those of us who see things more realistically enjoy that aspect of these periodic memorials but also lament, and lambast, the sheer incompetence in the Bear organization that has resulted in our having to take our joy from an event that is nearing the realm of ancient history.

Second, were the ’85 Bears the best team in NFL history?   Probably not.

The obvious reason that the ’85 Bears were not the best team in NFL history is that they never repeated.  Great teams become dynasties.   The Bears should have been a dynasty; they were among the youngest teams, if not THE youngest team, to win a Super Bowl.   But they never won again.   Why?   Who knows?   My favorite theory is that it was Buddy Ryan’s leaving the team for a head coaching position out east.   Who can blame Mr. Ryan for that?   Maybe it was Jim McMahon’s failure to stay healthy.   But note that McMahon missed several games in both the ’84 and ’85 seasons and Steve Fuller did a more than admirable job subbing for him.  Maybe it was Mike Ditka’s coaching style, which was becoming increasingly anachronistic even as the Bears were steamrolling their way to destiny in 1985.

It doesn’t matter why the Bears didn’t repeat; what is important is that they didn’t.   That is why they can’t be considered the greatest team ever.   It was interesting, but not at all surprising, that it was Phil Simms and Dan Marino, the only two Bear opponents appearing as commentators in “ ’85:  The Greatest Team in Pro Football History,” who brought up this point.   Objectivity can lead to clarity.   Come to think of it, that is perhaps the whole point of this blog, but I digress.

Perhaps another reason that the ’85 Bears were not the greatest team in NFL history, and the reason they didn’t repeat, was that Jim McMahon, for all that he did for that team, was not a great quarterback.   He was perfect for that team…a tough, fearless guy who enjoyed the game and played it with childlike gusto, an inspiration for his teammates and a guy who personified the attitude towards the game, authority, and the opponents that characterized this assemblage of characters who became the world’s dominant team for a year or so.   Especially apt was John Madden’s description of Jim McMahon as “a quarterback who always wanted to be a lineman.”   That was McMahon, as tough, and as wild, a guy who ever played the position.   But a great quarterback in the style of Manning, Favre, Brady, Marino, Bradshaw, Unitas, Starr, or any number of other present or former QBs I have failed to mention?   No.  

Maybe in ’85 a great quarterback didn’t matter as much, especially with an impermeable defense and the greatest running back who ever lived, albeit in the waning days of his career.   Indeed, as I pointed out above, Steve Fuller led the Bears to a number of victories as McMahon’s backup.   But the great teams of today, and probably even of the ‘80s and ‘90s, were characterized by great quarterbacks.   Jim McMahon was great for the Bears, but he wasn’t a great quarterback.

If we confine our discussion to performance over a single season, one could argue that the ’85 Bears were the greatest team ever; it would be nearly foolhardy to argue otherwise, though there are some in Miami who would take that chance.   The ’85 Bears certainly brought great joy to a city starved for that commodity by any of its sports teams.   And the Bears that year captured the imagination of the world.   But great teams repeat; the Bears didn’t.