{"id":734910,"date":"2026-02-07T04:13:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734910\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T04:13:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T04:13:34","slug":"the-1985-bears-man-what-a-story-but-does-it-ever-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734910\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1985 Bears \u2014 man, what a story! But does it ever end?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2010 near Phoenix, I interviewed Jim McMahon for a story marking the 25th anniversary of the Super Bowl-winning 1985 Bears<\/a>. It was pre-Sun-Times for me but same-old, same-old for the Punky QB.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been 25 years and we\u2019re still talking about this [bleep],\u201d he said then.<\/p>\n

I reminded McMahon of that Thursday night at the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, where, on the precipice of Super Bowl 60, he regaled an auditorium crowd of several hundred Bears fans, most of them around his age \u2014 he\u2019s 66 \u2014 or older, with familiar anecdotes about Super Bowl 20.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll never believe what he said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s been 40 years and we\u2019re still talking about this [bleep].\u201d<\/p>\n

About his \u201cSuper Bowl Shuffle\u201d dancing (\u201cYou didn\u2019t see me on \u2018Soul Train,\u2019 did you?\u201d), about losing a Best R&B Performance Grammy to Prince (\u201cHow do you lose to Prince? Come on\u201d), about golfing with Michael Jordan (\u201cDid you know he liked to gamble?\u201d), about butting heads with Mike Ditka (\u201cI told him, \u2018You don\u2019t know what the hell you\u2019re doing\u2019 \u201d), about limping through life in a body that hasn\u2019t felt right in forever (\u201cThat\u2019s why they make beer\u201d).<\/p>\n

Laugh lines, all, delivered with ease as though he\u2019s been using them for decades, which, of course, he has been. The crowd ate it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople still like to talk about it,\u201d McMahon said, \u201cand until the Bears win another Super Bowl, \u201985 is what they\u2019re going to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that true? It might be. Chicago has loved the \u201985 Bears for so long, the whole thing is far past the point of becoming a caricature of itself.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, perhaps that old team is merely entering the dustbin of history slowly, one speck at a time. And perhaps the current Bears are hitting fast-forward on that process. There\u2019s nothing like a Super Bowl champion, but probably somewhere close to half the fans who reveled in the 2025 Bears\u2019 division-winning success weren\u2019t alive or old enough to have witnessed the Shufflin\u2019 Crew. And how often, since all the way back then, have the Bears had as much excitement and momentum around them as they have now with Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams and a fan base aflame with interest?<\/p>\n

Were the 2025 Bears the most well-liked Bears team since the \u201980s?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they were,\u201d Hall of Fame Bears lineman Dan Hampton said. \u201cI agree with that. The other teams, they just weren\u2019t as well liked as this one. This team was a dynamic group that played \u2014 almost to the hilt \u2014 the underdog, come-from-behind, never-say-die character that everybody grows up loving. Those are the kinds of things that catch fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fire raged hottest and widest in \u201985, though. There\u2019s no disputing that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the greatest thing since sliced bread,\u201d Hampton said. \u201cFor a time, the Second City was not second. It was pre-eminent.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Jim<\/p>\n

Jim McMahon at the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford on Feb. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Hard Rock Casino Rockford<\/p>\n

While McMahon sipped a tall beer and told stories, Hampton and his band, the Chicago 6, were getting ready to perform a few hundred feet away on a casino stage. Once upon a time, the band included Walter Payton on drums, Dave Duerson contributing vocals and, of course, Steve McMichael looming extra-extra-large. Alas, there would be no Bears onstage with \u201cDanimal\u201d this time as he slapped his bass and belted out the same old songs.<\/p>\n

He felt the absence of teammates gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have no idea,\u201d he said. \u201cNo idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he sang \u201cAnother Ditka Bad Call,\u201d which he wrote with McMichael to the tune of Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cAnother Brick in the Wall.\u201d You can hear it already, can\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

\u201cHey! Ditka! Leave those Bears alone!\u201d<\/p>\n

And he sang \u201cThe Baddest Team Alive,\u201d which he wrote with inspiration from Otis Wilson, another teammate who has sung with the band many times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the baddest, the baddest team alive \/ When the final gun was fired, no team could survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 200 Bears fans, most of them in jerseys \u2014 lots of 9s and 99s, of course \u2014 took in the music, bobbing their heads in the slight, yet unmistakable, manner of humans whose wild days are behind them. A pair of white-haired women Hampton ballparked at 80 years old wore his No. 99 as they smiled and told him, \u201cWe used to come to practice!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweet, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

Dan Hampton and the Chicago 6 perform at the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford on Feb. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n

Steve Greenberg\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Back in the auditorium, a painting of a jersey-clad Bear was auctioned off for $1,000 and one of McMahon \u2014 depicted in uniform, wearing dark shades and an orange Bears cap \u2014 for $1,400. A framed Payton jersey went for $4,000. The proceeds were for the Rockford Park District to use on youth sports, which is important and wonderful.<\/p>\n

Yes, there are more drops to be squeezed out of the mind-blowing experience that was the \u201985 Bears.<\/p>\n

How many more? Your guess is as good as mine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know [Bears fans] are excited now because they\u2019ve got a team they can get excited about, but until they win the Super Bowl, what do you have? What do you have to look back on?\u201d McMahon said. \u201cUntil they win again, it\u2019s going to be these kinds of memories for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Jake<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Resilience is moral of Darnold\u2019s story. Many of the low points he hit typically would\u2019ve been the end for a quarterback.<\/p>\n

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read<\/p>\n

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\"Outside<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s \u201cPolling Place,\u201d we asked for your Super Bowl Sunday picks and your impression of the Bulls\u2019 flurry of trades at the NBA deadline.<\/p>\n

[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
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read<\/p>\n

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\"SiriusXM<\/p>\n

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Urlacher called it an \u201cunbelievable\u201d season for the Bears as they pulled off seven comeback victories when trailing in the final two minutes.<\/p>\n

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