Two Decades Later

By: Daniel Dorfman

Think back to 1985 for a second. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in what turned out to be the sunset of the Soviet Union. In Chicago, Mayor Harold Washington was mired in Council Wars and families with the last names of Huxtable, Ewing and Carrington dominated prime-time television.But the biggest story locally was a football team that boosted the city’s morale as high as the Sears Tower. It’s a story whose tentacles reach to this very day.

The latest indication as to how much 1985 keeps its grasp on Chicago and clouds reality of what needs to be done to improve the Bears was the recent search for the Bears 13th head coach. After being rejected by LSU coach Nick Saban, Bears general manager Jerry Angelo selected Lovie Smith, the former defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams.

Some fans voiced their opinion on talk shows, beseeching Angelo to name Mike Singletary, who expressed interest in the position. Even Da Coach-Mike Ditka-leader of that wonderful 1985 season suggested Singletary be considered as Dick Jauron’s replacement.

Singletary may very well be a terrific head coach some day and has always been an extremely impressive individual both on and off the field, but after retiring following the 1992 season, Singletary was out of the game for the next 10 years. He came back into the NFL last season as the linebackers’ coach for the Baltimore Ravens.

At the same time, Smith has been working his way up the coaching ladder for the best part of two decades. Nobody knows if Smith will be the next Bill Parcells, Don Shula or Tom Landry. Or whether future generations will have as hard of a time remembering his tenure as most Bears fans today have in recalling the individuals who stepped in for the legendary George Halas when he would take a season off from coaching. But nostalgia and reality shouldn’t be mixed right now for the Bears.

The idea that Singletary is ready to coach the Bears today became only the latest sojourn in trying to recreate the magic that was the 1985 season.

Some of the modern players have tried to hook onto the 1985 buzz. During the fluky 2001 season, R.W. McQuarters put together a rap album along the lines of the “Super Bowl Shuffle,” the musical effort recorded by Singletary, Payton and a sizeable remainder of the team.

Alas, the calendar does not lie. High school seniors were not even born at the time of that magical season. By continually reaching for the past, there appears to be an uncomfortable notion that the individuals most associated with that team somehow possess a Midas-like touch when it comes to fixing problems standing in the Bears way. It is done with the hope of landing a second Vince Lombardi trophy, something the 1985 team was unable to do and something the subsequent generation of Bears’ teams since has failed to achieve.

For the people who were not living in Chicago at the time or those who are not old enough to remember (even the people living under a rock in the Chicago area knew what was going on), the 1985 season was a confluence of winning football, cockiness and a city yearning for a champion.

Using a cutting edge defense for the time-the “46,” which was conceived by coordinator Buddy Ryan-the 1985 Bears achieved a 15-1 regular season record with the margin of victory averaging a shade over 18 points.

Some moments of that season became memories placed in the city’s pouch like a wedding album: An injured McMahon coming in off the bench on a Thursday night in Minnesota to throw touchdowns on his first, second and seventh passes, William Perry becoming a household name by scoring touchdowns or throwing blocks on the goal line, and the “46″ defense that seemed to do anything it wanted against the opposing offense.

Arguments can easily be made that it was the greatest single season team ever assembled.

“Everybody loves a winner,” noted Jim Covert, the left tackle on that 1985 team, who capped off his season with one of his two appearances in the Pro Bowl. He played for the Bears from 1983 to 1991.

“Anytime you have one of the best teams of all time, of course (people) would like to replicate it again. In this era, it won’t happen again. I played with the same guys all seven years. That is not going to happen again.”

“It was such a special team. At that time, the planets were aligned. It all started with the loss to the 49ers in the NFC Championship game the previous year. We got a taste of it. We knew if we came back with a more competitive offense, we had the opportunity and ability. Everyone was so focused on getting to the Super Bowl and nothing was going to get in the way and I think it showed on the field.”

An indication of how much times have changed is the offensive line that Covert played with from 1985 through his last game. The same starting lineup on the offensive line existed from the Super Bowl season to for the next five seasons. That is unheard of in the modern era.

“For people like myself in their 30s it was their first taste of what a championship was like,” said ESPN Radio talk show host Marc Silverman. “We threw a ticker tape parade for the Sting (Chicago’s former pro soccer team) in 1981. Look at what 1985 was going to be.”

Silverman noted nostalgia runs deep in this community.

“No town looks back as much as Chicago. When we talk about the Bears, we look back. When we talk about the Blackhawks, we look back,” he said. “When we talk about the Bulls, we talk about how the dynasty was broken up too early. And of course for our baseball teams we find ourselves looking back because they have not won in years. There is optimism but we always find ourselves looking back. The irony is Ditka said living in the past is for cowards and losers. Then I guess you can accuse us all of being cowards and losers.”

Perhaps the 1985 nostalgia is fueled by the fact that there was only one championship team. Despite the main core of the players still in their prime, the club only managed one playoff victory over the next six seasons and that game was played in bizarre conditions, the “Fog Bowl” triumph over the Philadelphia Eagles.

“The shame of what happened in 1985 was that there was not a 1986, 1987, 1988. That is more of a sports tragedy than the Bulls breaking up,” Silverman said.

Why that club failed repeatedly in the postseason is a subject for another day.

The Bears slowly progressed from 4-5 in the strike-shortened 1982 season, to 8-8 in 1983, to a 10-6 record in 1984, which included an appearance in the NFC Championship game, to the promised land of 1985. Hard to believe such steady improvement could occur today’s NFL, where last year’s Super Bowl participants can’t even qualify for the postseason this season.

The main reasons why 1985 cannot happen again starts with free agency and the salary cap. Both of which were years and years away in 1985. NFL teams could spend what they wanted on their players back then and if the players did not like it, they did not have too many other options. Two of the Bears 1984 defensive starters, Todd Bell and Al Harris, actually sat out the 1985 season due to contract disputes. The emergence of Wilber Marshall and Dave Duerson that year makes it easy to forget.

Now the players have the option to look to other teams, and because of the salary cap, teams cannot amass depth at positions the way the Bears did with guys like of Duerson and Marshall.

While Smith will have a 7-9 team to build upon with many young players who showed flashes of talent in 2003, cohesiveness will be a problem for the new coaching staff. Silverman notes familiar faces Dez White, Keith Traylor and Chris Villarial will all be eligible for free agency, while David Terrell, Phillip Daniels, Bryan Robinson and Anthony Thomas could be victims of the salary cap.
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There is another reason why it is hard to believe the Bears will ever see the ultimate success they achieved in 1985, and that is because the man who laid the foundation for that team has not been replaced.

Jim Finks, the general manager from 1974 through 1983, brought in 19 of the 22 starters on the Super Bowl XX club. Those players included future Hall-of-Famers’ Walter Payton, Dan Hampton and Singletary.

“Finks put the Bears in a dress shirt,” said Bob Verdi, contributing columnist to the Chicago Tribune who covered Finks and the 1985 team. “There was an air of professionalism about him. It was not all style but substance as well.”

“You knew that he knew what he was doing,” said Verdi, who is also the Senior Writer at Golf World and Golf Digest. “He was a great observer, a great listener and was the perfect sports executive.”

After their championship in 1963, the Bears did not make a playoff appearance until 1977, which not so coincidentally was three years after Finks arrived from the Vikings. As Finks’ draft choices slowly faded away, there has not been a lot of winning football at Soldier Field.
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“He was a terror if you are on other side of a table negotiating a contract, but that was his job,” Verdi said.
While Covert confirms Finks was a “terror” to negotiate with as Verdi alluded, he said Finks and his scouting staff did something very special.

Whether Finks would have succeeded in the role of general manager today with a reputation of a combative style is something that will never be known.

But Verdi believes Finks would have adapted to the new league.

“I am not sure Finks would have been hamstrung by the salary cap, especially in a league-more than any other league-where all things are equal.”

Verdi added that with the cap and free agency, Finks would have been even smarter than he was 20 years ago.

“He didn’t get where he was because he threw money around, he just knew what he was doing. If you have a good general manager he is worth every bit as much as the guy who hits 40 homer runs. There aren’t that many good executives. The great sports executives today stick out like sore thumbs.”

Finks left the Bears in 1983 in a power dispute with George Halas and the McCaskey’s. Oversimplifying his biography, Finks switched sports for a short time and went to the Cubs front office before returning to the NFL and oversaw the New Orleans Saints, getting them into the playoffs for the first time. He succumbed to cancer 10 years ago and was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame posthumously.

Perhaps it is unfair to compare Angelo to Finks as they are operating in different eras with different rules. But the public relations aspect of the job has remained a constant. The introduction-of-Smith news conference in January when Angelo made a Howard Dean-esque stupid comment about wearing a turban probably would not have happened under Finks’ regime.

“If they had named Lovie Smith coach and Jim Finks had been the GM, he might have been in another room or out grocery shopping,” Verdi said. “The idea of him taking over the press conference was incomprehensible. But he was secure in his position and policy and did not feel the need to fire back at writers.”

What it all comes down to is this. It is fun to think about 1985. Put on the replica Rozelle headband that McMahon donned in the NFC Championship Game, put a copy of the highlights of that season in the VCR or even the Super Bowl Shuffle. Just don’t expect it to happen again.

Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance writer in the Chicago area. Reach him via email at dandorfman12345678@yahoo.com.

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