THE BEARS’ WINNING TRADITION?

9/15/16

The Bears' first round pick meets the press.   He comes to the microphone and tells the assembled crowd that he is happy to have been picked by the Bears, especially because of their “winning tradition.”

The Bears trade for the latest quarterback who “has the potential to transform the franchise.”   He meets the Chicago press and says that he is happy to be contributing to the Bears’ “winning tradition.”

The Bears bring on yet another new coach, general manager, “director of football operations,” etc. who is going to “turn the franchise around.”   At his first press conference, he talks about how excited he is, especially because of the Bears’ “winning tradition.”

The Bears television broadcast team, clearly from out of town, comments at the onset of the game, and numerous times throughout the contest (the latter usually to express surprise and/or disappointment), about the Bears’ trying to resume their “winning tradition.”

Hmm…

Are all these guys under the impression that they landed, or are calling the game from a stadium, about 200 miles north of here?

Winning tradition?   What winning tradition?

Yours truly is pushing 60 years old.   In my lifetime, the Bears have become the world champions twice…in 1963 (before there was a Super Bowl) and in 1986.    Other than that…nada, zip, zilcho, bupkes.   The Bears did make the Super Bowl in 2007, only to be completely dominated and humiliated after the first play of that game.   During the 1986 regular season, they looked like they were going to repeat before the wheels fell off in the playoffs, never to be reattached.   And they probably missed winning the NFL championship in 1965 because they got off to a 0-3 start before dominating the league for the rest of that near championship season.   But they only won, in the proper sense of the term, twice…in 60 years!!!

Oh, yeah…back in the halcyon days of George Halas and the other league founders, the Bears were the Monsters of the Midway, but that was a long, long time ago.   Those days have been lost in the mists of time, even for those of us who can remember Bear teams of 50+ years ago.

The Bears have had a few great teams in the last 60 years.    They have had some of the greatest players ever to play the game, e.g., Sayers, Payton, Butkus, Singletary, Hampton, and maybe a few others I have forgotten.    But a winning tradition?   2 championships in a long lifetime does not a winning tradition make.