Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football (43 page)

10: THE FRIDGE

Much of the blow-by-blow on the San Francisco and Dallas games comes from interviews with, among others, Danny White, Gary Fencik, and Otis Wilson. When I asked Wilson to name the biggest hit he’d ever delivered, he said it came a season later, when he clotheslined Steelers receiver Louis Lipps, who was coming to make a crackback block: “It’s easy to knock somebody out with a helmet,” Otis told me, “but to get them with a forearm, that’s impressive.” I also watched these games. Again and again. Ezra Pound defined literature as news that stays new; to me, the game played by the Bears and the 49ers in 1985 is literature. Rick Telander’s roof: Brian McCaskey told me this story, and it’s been widely reported. Ditka’s drunk driving: the coach writes about it in his first autobiography. McMahon writes about it in his book, too. I also got the story in interviews from McMahon, Moorehead, and others. As for the ticket, I saw it with my own eyes in the hallway at New Trier. Ron Jaworski dedicated a chapter of his book
Games That Changed the Game: The Evolution of the NFL in Seven Sundays
to the 1985 Dallas game, which he describes as the most violent he’d ever seen. See also every other book ever written about the ’85 Bears, especially
Calling the Shots
by Mike Singletary. I got still more from interviews with Jaworski and his cowriter Greg Cosell at NFL Films, in New Jersey. The Everson Walls anecdote appears in
Steve McMichael’s Tales from the Chicago Bears Sideline.
On Danny White’s second knockout: the quarterback recently had surgery on his spine, which, he said, was a direct result of Wilson’s hit, delivered almost thirty years ago. Jim Brown’s quote—“the Bears beat people up”—appears in
Da Bears! How the 1985 Monsters of the Midway Became the Greatest Team in NFL History
by Steve Delsohn. On Dallas coach Tom Landry, see
Tom Landry: Man of Character
by Donnie Snyder, also
Tom Landry: An Autobiography.
On Bill Walsh, see
The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty
by David Harris.

11: A RACE TO THE QUARTERBACK

The bedrock of this chapter is my interview with Gary Fencik. He talked about Buddy Ryan and the workings of the 46 defense. This interview was supplemented by others, especially those with Plank, namesake of the 46. Plank checked over all the formations drawn for this book and sent me his own rendering of the 46 defense. I also spoke to Jim Morrissey, Otis Wilson, Tyrone Keys, and Neill Armstrong, who claims a variation of the 46 was being played in Canada years before. I spoke to several quarterbacks who had to play against the 46, including Joe Theismann, Danny White, and Ron Jaworski. Cris Collinsworth gave me the wide receiver’s point of view. See also Rex Ryan’s DVD,
Coaching Football’s 46 Defense
(Monterey, CA: Coaches Choice, 1999). Two books lay out the 46 better than most others:
Blood, Sweat, and Chalk: The Ultimate Football Playbook
by Tim Layden and
The Games That Changed the Game: The Evolution of the NFL in Seven Sundays
by Ron Jaworski. I interviewed Jaworski and Cosell, and both were extremely helpful. On Buddy’s bio, I referred to interviews and the books mentioned above. See also
Play It Like You Mean It: Passion, Laughs, and Leadership in the World’s Most Beautiful Game
by Rex Ryan. Jeff Fisher’s quote—“Buddy had a grading system”—appears in
Da Bears! How the 1985 Monsters of the Midway Became the Greatest Team in NFL History
by Steve Delsohn. Dave Duerson’s quotes on Buddy are included in
The ’85 Bears: Still Chicago’s Team
, compiled by the
Chicago Tribune.
Fencik talked about Al Harris and Todd Bell. Also see Brad Biggs, “Hard-Hitting ex-Bear Bell Dies of Heart Attack at 47,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, March 17, 2005. Also
Steve McMichael’s Tales from the Chicago Bears Sideline.
Plank told me he met Fencik before practice on the way to Lake Forest. Fencik’s car had broken down, and he was hitchhiking. Plank picked him up. Plank believes he inspired Fencik, schooled him in the art of the big hit.

12: SHANE COMES TO THE METRODOME

This chapter is based on repeated watching of the Bears/Vikings game, as well as interviews with Ditka, McMahon, Steve Zucker (Mac’s agent), Brian Baschnagel, Gary Fencik, and others. The event was extensively covered in the local papers. I saved a bunch of these stories for years and used them here. See also Ditka’s
In Life, First You Kick Ass
and
Ditka.
A key text is Mac’s autobiography,
McMahon! The Bare Truth About Chicago’s Brashest Bear.
Details on McMahon’s childhood come from these books, as well as my interview with the QB. His DUI was covered in the Florida papers (“McMahon ‘Wasted’ While Driving,” Associated Press, November 10, 2003). Also of great help were the series of articles by John Branch in the
New York Times
about Derek Boogaard, the New York Rangers enforcer, who suffered from CTE and died of a drug overdose in 2011. The first piece, “A Boy Learns to Brawl,” was published December 3, 2011. See also Alan Schwarz, “Duerson’s Brain Trauma Diagnosed,”
New York Times
, May 2, 2011. Alan Schwarz did groundbreaking work on CTE for the
Times
—a good place to start for anyone interested. See also Ben McGrath, “Does Football Have a Future? The N.F.L. and the Concussion Crisis,”
New Yorker
, January 31, 2011. On Michael Vick’s contract, see “Scoop Jackson,” “The Meaning of Michael Vick’s $100M,”
ESPN.com
, September 7, 2011.

13: STAR-CROSSED IN MIAMI

The stuff on the Miami game comes from interviews and books, all those mentioned above as well as
Everyone’s a Coach: Five Secrets for High-Performance Coaching
by Don Shula. Rex Ryan’s quote about the aura of the 46 appeared in
The Games That Changed the Game: The Evolution of the NFL in Seven Sundays
by Ron Jaworski. Mercury Morris served three years in prison; his conviction was then overturned on grounds he’d been the victim of entrapment. See “Morris Is Freed,”
New York Times
, June 13, 1986. “The Bears did not go with a nickel…”: Shula’s quote appears in Jaworski’s
The Games That Changed the Game.
Hampton’s comments on the Ditka/Ryan halftime fight appear in
Da Bears! How the 1985 Monsters of the Midway Became the Greatest Team in NFL History
by Steve Delsohn. “The Super Bowl Shuffle”: Information on this infectious song and video comes from books listed above, as well as my interviews and experience. On the scandal regarding “The Shuffle,” see “‘Super Bowl Shuffle’ Accounting Due Soon,”
Chicago Tribune
, July 29, 1986. Also Dan Pompei, “Gault Gets Credit for the Super Bowl Shuffle,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, January 3, 1986. Deadspin ran an oral history of the Shuffle in the winter of 2012. For more on “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” just go to YouTube and watch the thing.

14: THE FERGUSON HIT

The information in this section comes first and foremost from the game itself, which I watched then, watched now, and watched in between. As noted, I tried and failed to speak to Joe Ferguson, but I did get a great deal of information and insight from Ditka, Fencik, Tyrone Keys, Jim Morrissey, and Doug Plank. Ditka’s quote on the Hit—“the lick Wilber put on Joe Ferguson”—comes from an ESPN special on the Bears. Mac’s comment on the team plane returning from Detroit comes from
The Rise and Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History
by John Mullin, and from Tim Wrightman, who told me the same story.

15: THE YEAR WITHOUT A WINTER, AND 16: A BUNCH OF CRYBABIES

In these chapters, I relied on the broadcasts of the games themselves, the record books, and the play-by-play, as well as interviews with participants. To this, I added details from the sports stories written at the time, as well as the reporting done in books:
In Life, First You Kick Ass
by Mike Ditka;
McMahon!
by Jim McMahon;
Da Bears! How the 1985 Monsters of the Midway Became the Greatest Team in NFL History
by Steve Delsohn; and
The Rise and Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History
by John Mullin. For a description of Lawrence Taylor’s impact, see
The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
by Michael Lewis. Also on Taylor:
LT: Living on the Edge
by Lawrence Taylor. The crackback block: it seemed to be on the verge of being banned in 2012. See “Requiem for the Crackback?”
Deadspin.com
, March 23, 2009, and Dan Hanzus, “League Will Consider Changes to Blocking Rules for Safety,”
NFL.com
, November 23, 2012. McMahon and the headband: it was a topic in every interview. See also “Headband Brand Banned? After Drawing $5,000 Fine, McMahon Wears One for Rozelle,”
Miami Herald
, January 13, 1986. The stuff on Chicago in the ’80s is from my life. The details from New Orleans come from articles and stories published at the time, including the
Rolling Stone
cover story on McMahon. The Super Bowl itself is there for everyone to see. For the misery of Payton, I’m indebted to Payton’s own account in
Never Die Easy
, as well as Jeff Pearlman’s account in
Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton
and my own interviews. Bill Murray on the sideline: I know how he got there. Brian McCaskey, known in the Bears’ locker room for his Murray imitation—he could do every line from
Caddyshack
—gave Murray his press pass, adding, “Don’t say where you got it. We’re not supposed to give these away.” Later, when a local TV reporter asked Murray how he’d gotten on the field, he said, “Brian McCaskey gave me his pass.” Super Bowl controversy: on acupuncture and Mac’s butt, see Jackie McMullan, “Acupuncturist Sticking to the Silent Treatment; Shiraishi Arrives, but Chooses to Avoid Prickly Issue,”
Boston Globe
, January 23, 1986, and Dan Pompei, “False Story Brings McMahon Threats,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, January 24, 1986. On the Packers fan saved by his regalia, see “Cheesehead May Have Been a Lifesaver: Packers Fan Uses Foam to Protect Self During Plane Crash,”
Chicago Tribune
, November 29, 1995.

17: WHAT WENT WRONG

In this chapter, I have drawn on every book and every interview already mentioned. There is nothing I do not refer to here, nothing I did not have in mind. Especially helpful were interviews with Vince and Bill Tobin, as well as Ditka, Wilson, Wrightman, and Fencik. On cracking the 46, I was guided by my conversations with Jaworski, Theismann, Ditka, McMahon, and Vince Tobin. Charles Martin: his obit, “The Man Behind the Mean,” written by David Haugh, appeared in the
Chicago Tribune
on February 1, 2005: “To Bears fans, Charles Martin will always be recalled for the body slam that ended Jim McMahon’s season in 1986. But there was more to the man they buried Monday. Years before he threw quarterback Jim McMahon to the Soldier Field turf to ruin any realistic hopes the Bears had of repeating as Super Bowl champions in 1986, former Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Charles Martin struggled with knowing when to stop.” McMichael’s quote about punching McCaskey in the mouth comes from his own book,
Steve McMichael’s Tales from the Chicacgo Bears Sideline.
McCaskey’s explanation for the flimsy Super Bowl rings appears in
The Rise and Self-Destruction of the Greatest Football Team in History
by John Mullin, as does Howie Long’s quote about taking a beating from the Bears. The Fridge’s ring really is in the Hall of Fame. “He was a prime candidate…”: This quote about Ditka’s heart attack appears in
Chicago Bears: The Complete Illustrated History
by Lew Freedman.

18: MUCH LATER

I was lucky to attend the Bears ceremony at the White House and see those great players together again. The reports on each player were drawn from my interviews, as well as the books cited above. Shaun Gayle’s troubles have been widely reported, as have those of Mike Richardson. Fritz Shurmur: the one Packer to disapprove of Mac wearing his Bears jersey to the White House was a defensive coach; he had been with the L.A. Rams in 1985, meaning he was on the sideline when McMahon flashed his Rozelle headband. On Mike McCaskey and Richard Daley, see Fred Mitchell, “McCaskey Returns Daley’s Fire,”
Chicago Tribune
, February 19, 1993. Here’s how the story begins: “Bears President Michael McCaskey was a bit surprised when Mayor Richard Daley held a special press conference to register his displeasure over the firing of Mike Ditka.” See also John Kass, “Daley Leads Chorus of City’s Grabowskis: Wrong Guy Is Out,”
Chicago Tribune
, January 6, 1993. On McCaskey’s firing, see “Bears Oust McCaskey as Team President,” Associated Press, February 11, 1999. On Mike Richardson, see Larry Welborn, “Prison Sentence for ex-NFL Star Reversed on Appeal,”
Orange Country Register
, June 3, 2010. On Shaun Gayle, see Dan Rozek, “Ex-Bear Shaun Gayle Says He Had Sex with Marni Yang Night Before Killing,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, March 8, 2011. Gary Fencik works at Adams Street Partners. You can view his profile on the firm’s website. Buddy Ryan, his ranch, his horses: see Joe Drape, “On Ryan’s Farm, Memories Fresh and Fading,”
New York Times
, February 3, 2007. Walter Payton’s final game: Dave Anderson, “Walter Payton’s Last Time,”
New York Times
, January 11, 1988. On Walter’s illness and death, see Ditka’s autobiography, as well as
Calling the Shots
by Mike Singletary;
Never Die Easy
by Walter Payton; and
Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton
by Jeff Pearlman. On CTE, see the sources mentioned in the notes for chapter 12, as well as
Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis from the NFL to Youth Leagues
by Christopher Nowinski.

19: ROAD TRIP TO CANTON