The '85 Bears: We Were the Greatest
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“When we went up to Lambeau and played the Packers, that was during the time where the quarterback didn’t have to run a play if the crowd was too loud. We were on the 1-yard line going in, and McMahon was taunting the Packer fans, being really brutal. They were too loud, so he wasn’t going to run the play. He was just taunting the Packer fans up there. Now, this is after the Monday night game, and they all know Fridge is going to get the ball. But this was the one where they faked the run to Fridge and he went into the end zone and caught the pass for a touchdown. Just to hear Lambeau Field being so loud and McMahon’s being difficult, and then hearing the quiet after Fridge caught a touchdown pass, we were just laughing so hard out there.”
“Walter Payton was the greatest. I remember the first play I was ever in on. We were going against a 3–4 defense. The nose guard threw me off, and Walter was running through the right tackle hole. I started getting back up on my feet, and I looked behind me. Remember watching as a kid the high step that Walter would do? It was just like I was a little kid watching him high-step right at me. I tried to get out of his way, but I just catch his knee with my shoulder, and he goes down. I thought, ‘Man, my first play in the NFL, and I tackle Walter Payton.’ Walter goes, ‘Next time, just lay on the ground.’”
“I remember Willie Gault on the plane after the Monday night loss in Miami asking me if I wanted to be in ‘The Super Bowl Shuffle.’ I said no. I didn’t want any part of that. I said, ‘Are you kidding me? We just got beat on national TV, and now we’re going to go sing about being in the Super Bowl? Come on.’”
“I was born in Iowa City in University Hospital, so I was a Hawkeye from Day One. My father was coaching at Iowa at the time. My dad grew up in Iowa, went to the University of Iowa, and in 1953 was a first-team All-American. My older brother Jim was first-team All-Big Ten and a two time captain of Iowa. When he was a senior, I was a freshman at Iowa. Then when I was a senior, Joel was a freshman at Iowa. Joel went on to play 10 years with the Saints. We were all centers. My uncle Wally was an All-American football player at Iowa and played for the Vikings. He started four Super Bowls with the Vikings.”
GAME 16
Chicago 37, Detroit 17
Many Stars of This Show
On paper, a 20-point victory over a division rival to end the regular season 15–1 would seem to provide a springboard into the playoffs. But these were the ’85 Bears, who could find something wrong with a $100 bill. For instance, it took the Bears more than 46 minutes to score an offensive touchdown. They turned the ball over four times, three on interceptions and once on a fumble.
They managed just two touchdowns on eight trips inside the Detroit 30-yard line. They failed by four points to break the 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers’ record for points allowed in a 16-game schedule, finishing with 198.
They watched inspirational leader Mike Singletary limp off the field with a sprained left knee.
Even though coach Mike Ditka berated his team after the victory at the Pontiac Silverdome, the Bears had become just the second squad in NFL history to win 15 games in the regular season and the first in a dozen years to go unbeaten in the NFC Central. They finished second in the league in points scored and first in total defense, first in rushing defense, and third in passing defense.
Many individuals merited notice, even the grouchy Ditka, who matched Bill Walsh as the only coaches with 15 wins in a season. The incomparable Walter Payton became the first man with more than 2,000 yards in combined rushing and receiving yardage three years in a row.
Dennis Gentry tightropes the sideline and holds the ball aloft at the end of his 94-yard kickoff return.
The first of Kevin Butler’s three field goals gave him 134 points for the season and broke Gale Sayers’ NFL rookie scoring record set 20 years earlier. Ron Rivera, replacing the injured Singletary, became the 21st Bear to score by returning a recovered fumble five yards in the fourth quarter.
Bears’ coach Mike Ditka autographs a football for a fan in Cicero, Illinois, on December 27, 1985.
Dennis Gentry electrified his team by returning the second-half kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown that busted open a tight 6–3 contest. Wilber Marshall creamed Joe Ferguson so hard on a rollout that the Lions quarterback’s arms dangled at his side before he hit the ground.
Laughter was provided in the fourth quarter when William Perry, who had forced James Jones to cough up the ball earlier in the game, scooped up a fumble and trudged some 40 hilarious yards downfield before being hauled down inside the Detroit 20. That set up Jim McMahon’s 11-yard pass to Ken Margerum for the final touchdown of an irregular regular season.
Now the playoffs—and history—awaited.
Chicago 37, Detroit 17
DEC. 22, 1985, AT THE SILVERDOME
BOTTOM LINE
Lots of contributors help end on right note
KEY PLAY
Dennis Gentry’s 94-yard kickoff return for a TD to open the second half. The play helped turn a 6–3 lead into a rout.
KEY STAT
The Bears recovered four Detroit fumbles and picked off three interceptions.
Otis Wilson is an unpleasant backfield visitor, sacking Detroit’s Eric Hipple.
Remembering ’85
DENNIS MCKINNON
No. 85, wide receiver
“The thing I’m proudest of was that I was part of a group of guys who did what they had to do, who gave Walter a chance to be in a place he should’ve always been. He was the quintessential icon. I was humbled by his presence.”
“Even today, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Walter Payton. I still say that this city has not honored him the way he should be. No different than the National Football League. We hope to change that. We would love to be able to get the National Football League on one given Sunday that a percentage of all tickets sold in all the markets goes to the Walter Payton Fund, which is something that has never been done, not even in our own backyard.”
“Having the great Payton, we were a running team. Everybody talks about how great our defense was, but it’s ironic that we led the league in time of possession, second in the league in scoring, three consecutive years I think we led the league in rushing, which means the defense was definitely rested.”
“Our offense, we never wanted to sit on the bench. We wanted to stand and see what quarter back would get knocked out. There was always a bounty on every quarterback.”
“We were so disappointed that we didn’t get the Dolphins. We never believed the Patriots had a prayer anyway.”
“Opening lineup. We’re in the tunnel. They’re doing the introductions, and they said, “No. 85, from Florida State, Dennis McKinnon.” Here I am, in my third year in the league, a free-agent walk-on, has a chance to start at a place I never thought I would be. It’s remarkable when you look back on it.”
“Yeah, I complained. Yeah, I was screaming, ‘Willie’s not open. I am. Throw me the ball. What do I have to do? Who else do I have to knock out?’”
“The McKinnon payoff? At a time where if you were really good at returning kicks, teams didn’t kick it to you. A majority of our guys who were on special teams weren’t making a whole lot of money. I wanted to insure my safety. I would always tell whoever makes the block that springs me, there’s $5,000 or $10,000 for you.”
“[Mike Ditka] is a guy in my first year I couldn’t stand. I got yelled at every single practice as a rookie. He had me learning three different positions—flanker, split end, tight end. Then I had veteran players tell me the wrong plays because they didn’t want to practice. I was frustrated, frustrated, frustrated. Then I realized that he saw something in me that some people didn’t see.”
“We did something so special to this town because we played for a city. We didn’t just play for the Bears or for the McCaskeys. We played for the city of Chicago. For every Bear fan who got off a plane in any city, they were proud to be from Chicago.”
Playoffs
Chicago 21, New York 0
Knocked Cold
After shutting down the defending champion 49ers in the wild-card playoff game, the New York Giants believed they had a chance against the Bears in the NFC semifinals at Soldier Field. Fat chance.
Sean Landeta whiffed on a punt when a gust of wind blew the ball off his foot in the first quarter, and Shaun Gayle ran it in for a bizarre five-yard touchdown. Then Jim McMahon threw two third-quarter touchdown passes to Dennis McKinnon, and the Bears won comfortably 21–0.
But the story of the game—the story of the season—was the Bears’ defense, as cold-hearted as the weather that chilled 62,076 delighted spectators. The Giants went three-and-out on nine of their first 11 possessions. Running back Joe Morris managed just 32 yards on 12 carries, 14 of those yards on his first attempt. Phil Simms was sacked six times. Before piling up 129 yards on their final two garbage-time drives, the Giants averaged less than two yards per play, and they were 0-for-12 on third-down conversions.
Buddy Ryan had promised a shutout, and his players delivered.
“We believe every thought Buddy shares with us,” safety Dave Duerson said.
Defensive tackle William Perry set the tone, nailing Morris behind the line with a brutal hit that forced the 5-foot-7-inch running back from the game for a time with a mild concussion. “I got him with everything I had,” Perry said.
The Giants came into the game with the No. 2-ranked defense in the NFL but left knowing the chasm separating them from the Bears was substantial. “Our defense—you’ve got to love them,” coach Mike Ditka said. “Buddy did a great job coaching them.”
With Jay Hilgenberg leading the interference, Walter Payton picks up some of his 93 yards against the Giants.
After Sean Landeta’s phantom punt results in a five-yard touchdown for Shaun Gayle (23) in the NFC semifinal, Bears players and fans go wild.
Richard Dent led that defense with six tackles and 3½ sacks, spending the entire afternoon in Simms’ face.
“They didn’t know who to block,” linebacker Wilber Marshall said. “That’s what makes this defense so exciting. It’s so complicated nobody can figure it out.” Gayle became the ninth Bears defender to score this season with “my first touchdown since high school.”
Meanwhile, the offensive line did not allow a sack to a Giants pass rush that led the league in sacks, completely neutralizing All-Pro linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who spent most of the fourth quarter on the sideline screaming in frustration.
McKinnon, who had three catches for 52 yards, first roused Taylor’s ire with a devastating but legal crackback block on a first-quarter running play. He later mixed it up with Giants cornerback Elvis Patterson, whom he beat for both his touchdown catches.
“They call him Toast because he gets burned so often, right?” McKinnon said. “I didn’t have toast for breakfast, but I had it for dinner.”
The Bears’ offense had no penalties or turnovers. With Walter Payton running for 93 yards, the Bears amassed 363 yards, which was 93 more than the Giants had been allowing.
“It wasn’t easy,” Ditka said. “Nothing in life is easy, but our players were on a mission. We beat a good football team.”
No, they completely manhandled a good football team. What does that say about the Bears?
Chicago 21, NewYork 0
JAN. 5, 1986, AT SOLDIER FIELD
BOTTOM LINE
Stout defense as nasty as weather in demolition of Giants
KEY PLAY
After Sean Landeta whiffed on a first-quarter punt, Shaun Gayle’s five-yard return gave the Bears a 7–0 lead that was more than enough.
KEY STAT
The Giants went three-and-out on nine of their first 11 possessions and were 0-for-12 on third-down conversions.
Mike Singletary closes in on New York’s Phil Simms, who was sacked six times.
Remembering ’85
KEVIN BUTLER
No. 6, kicker
“Steve Kazor picked me up at the airport and we walked up to Halas Hall, and the first guy that walked up to me was Buddy Ryan. He goes, ‘Hey, Steve, who’s this?’ Steve says, ‘This is Kevin Butler.’ Buddy looked at me and said, ‘Oh, God, we wasted a pick on him.’ All of a sudden I get a hand on my shoulder, and it was Ditka. Mike’s like, ‘Hey, don’t listen to this guy. Come with me.’”
“If you didn’t know where you stood with Mike, all you had to do was read the paper.”
“I remember my first meeting and sitting next to Mike Hartenstine and thinking, this guy’s probably killed people. He had that demeanor—stone face. As I got to know Mike, there probably wasn’t a nicer guy on the team.”
“The first mini-camp, I go up there after I’m drafted. I’m engaged to be married January 25. I walk out of that meeting, I get on the phone to Cathy and I say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to change our wedding.’ She’s like, ‘My God, you’ve been up there four hours and you’ve already met somebody.’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m going to make the team and we’re going to the Super Bowl.’”
“First of all, I hear ‘Butthead.’ That’s my name for the rest of my life. I enjoy it. Every day in the mail, I’m still signing football cards.”
“Bear fans, they’re true and blue. They’ve been through some lean years in the past. Until they carry the Lombardi Trophy off, we’ll still be their favorite kids.”
The first thing that comes to my mind: I did contribute to that Super Bowl season. Two games: San Francisco and the New York Jets. I hit four field goals in each game. The Jets was a tighter game than the Frisco game, but the Frisco game was a big game for me because the year before, that’s where the Bears’ season came to a halt in the NFC Championship Game. It was a big hump for us. To go out there and to make four field goals and to contribute to the win gave my teammates a lot of confidence in me.”
“You get into the first playoff game that year, and it’s the famous Sean Landeta missed punt. I’m thanking the Lord Landeta missed then because people forget I missed three that game.”
“I made three in the Super Bowl. That was big momentum for us.”
“The one thing the guys dug about me is that in 11 years, I never had a kickoff returned on me. I would get grief sometimes that I wasn’t kicking the ball out of the end zone the way I did in college. If the other 10 guys aren’t making the tackle, well, I’m going to make it. One year I was second in special-teams tackles with 11 solos.”
“I’ve got a Super Bowl ring and trophy I love that’s a great showpiece, and they can never take it away. But what football gave to me and Cathy, and what the Bears gave to me, is a tremendous head start in life. Hey, give me my health and give me my family, and I can get through anything.”
Playoffs
Chicago 24, Los Angeles 0
Super Smooth Sailing
Buddy Ryan had so much confidence in the Bears’ impregnable, take-no-prisoners defense that he predicted three fumbles by Rams All-Pro running back Eric Dickerson in the NFC Championship Game. Ryan was wrong. Dicker-son fumbled just twice. “If they would have run him more,” Ryan scoffed, “he would have had three.”
When Bear weather—frigid temperatures, howling winds, and swirling snow flurries—descended on Soldier Field, the Bears knew their first Super Bowl ticket was pretty well punched. In those conditions, Dickerson was the Southern California visitors’ only hope. And he couldn’t deliver, managing just 46 yards on 17 carries.
Worse, by falling behind 10–0 in the first 10 minutes and 34 seconds, the Rams were forced to play catch-up, and they had no chance against a defense that seemed to know what they were going to do before they even tried it and responded with ferocious effectiveness in a 24–0 thumping. Overwhelmed quarterback Dieter Brock completed just 10 of 31 passes for 66 yards with one interception. He was sacked three times and spent the entire afternoon running for his life.
When did the Bears seize control? “Kickoff,” said Dan Hampton, centerpiece of the defensive line that thwarted Dickerson and intimidated Brock. Early on, Hamp
ton could see defeat in the Rams’ faces. “I can tell by looking in their eyes whether they want to play or not,” he said. “I knew they weren’t really sure they wanted to be in Chicago playing us.”
The Bears, who became the first team in NFL history to record back-to-back shutouts in the playoffs, were just as efficient if not as spectacular on offense, most notably Jim McMahon.
Offensive guard Mark Bortz blocks the Rams’ Gary Jeter as Jim McMahon prepares to pass.
The punky QB completed 16 of 25 throws for 164 yards, running for one touchdown when he was supposed to pass and passing for another touchdown when he was supposed to hand off. He threw against the wind and with the wind and through the wind in a performance that drew superlatives from hard-to-please coach Mike Ditka.
Among the hallmarks of the Bears’ run to the NFC championship was the rugged defense of linemen Steve McMichael.
“You don’t understand how well our quarterback threw the football,” Ditka said. McMahon’s favorite target was Walter Payton, who gained only 32 yards rushing but added 48 yards on seven receptions.