Da Bears by Steve Delsohn takes you behind the scenes of the greatest team in NFL history, the 1985 Chicago Bears.

It’s time to dig into the prize closet for the first time this season.  I know, I’ve been slacking!

The BGO team recently hijacked a truck carrying a bunch of copies of “Da Bears” by Steve Delsohn and we’re looking to move ‘em quick.  Actually, we were lucky enough to get a few extra copies from the publisher to share with Bear Goggles On fans, but the hijacking story sounds better.  It’s a great book – check out City’s review here.  It’s available in stores now or you can try to win a copy right here.

Rules are simple – Predict the score of the Bears vs New York Giants Sunday night game for your chance to win a copy.  As a tiebreaker, include Jay Cutler’s passing yardage.  Whoever gets closest to the actual outcome will be this week’s winner.

E-mail your entries to beargoggles.boomer@gmail.com and make sure you enter Bears-Giants in the Subject line.  All submissions are due by 5PM on Sunday, October 3, 2010.   One entry per household, other restrictions apply.  Yada yada yada.

BEAR DOWN!!!

This season marks the 25th anniversary of the 1985 Super Bowl Bears. We’ll look back at all of the games leading up to the last Lombardi Trophy being hoisted at Halas Hall. To take the full trip down memory lane, check out Run The Ball for a complete DVD series of every game of the histiric 1985 Bears season. Tell them Bear Goggles On sent you! You can also get your ticket to join the ’85 Bears in their Glory Days Reunion here.  Special thanks to a couple of YouTube channels for the great ’85 Bears stuff they have as well – here and here.  Check em out!

September 29, 1985

The Washington Redskins headed to town to face off with the 3-0 Bears, who were coming off a thrilling Thursday night comeback against the Vikings.  As an NFC powerhouse, the Redskins would provide a big test for the surging Bears.   The Skins’ Dexter Manley stirred things up leading into game week by declaring that the Redskins “had to knock Walter Payton out of the game.” They achieved that goal, holding Payton to just 6 yards on 7 carries.  But these weren’t the Bears of old, where if you stopped Payton, you stopped the Bears.

It didn’t start out very well for the Bears, as they would trail Washington 10-0 early in the 2nd quarter.  But that’s when things took a turn when Willie Gault returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown.  The Bears wouldn’t look back after that.  The Bears poured it on, piling up 45 unanswered points to send the Skins home with a 45-10 loss.  Check out some highlights:

Hit the jump for some game notes, courtesy of Chicago Tribune Archives:

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This season marks the 25th anniversary of the 1985 Super Bowl Bears.  We’ll look back at all of the games leading up to the last Lombardi Trophy being hoisted at Halas Hall.  To take the full trip down memory lane, check out Run The Ball for a complete DVD series of every game of the histiric 1985 Bears season. Tell them Bear Goggles On sent you!  You can also get your ticket to join the ’85 Bears in their Glory Days Reunion here.

The Bears headed to Minnesota to face the division rival Vikings for a Thursday night matchup.  Starting quarterback Jim McMahon had spent a couple of nights on this short game in a Lake Forest hospital due to back spasms up near his neck.  He didn’t practice and wasn’t expected to play, so things didn’t look good for the 2-0 Bears in their first road game of the season.

Steve Fuller filled in for Jimmy Mac and the Bears actually got off to a 3-0 lead and ended up the first quarter 3-3 as Kevin Butler and Jan Stenerud matched field goals.

The Bears continued to struggle on offense and headed to the halftime locker room down 10-6.  The start of the third quarter wasn’t much better and the Vikings lead swelled to 17-9 before Bears coach Mike Ditka caved in and allowed McMahon, who had been chirping in his ear that he was good to go, to come into the game.  McMahon connected on touchdowns on his first two passes, going for 70 and 25 yards respectively to bring the Bears back.

The Bears put up 24 third quarter points and pulled away from the Vikings to take home a 33-24 victory.  It was one of those games that let you know that this was a special team that was meant to do special things.

Check out the McMahon TD passes, leading to a big come-from-behind victory over their division rivals to move to 3-0:

Jim McMahon ended the day 8 out of 15 for 236 and 3 TD’s while Walter Payton chipped in 62 rushing yards.  Kevin Butler added 4 field goals.  On the defensive side, Steve McMichael had 2 of the Bears’ 4 sacks and linebackers Otis Wilson and Wilber Marshall each added an interception.

For the complete box score and game stats, check out Pro-Football Reference and tune in each week as we chronicle each game of the historic 1985 season.  You can find the game summaries filed under the Flashback category.

BEAR DOWN!!!

The one-night event is set for Friday night, November 5th and 7:30 PM at the Arie Crown Theater. Here’s some info on the event from the Glory Days website:

Follow me after the jump for more info on tickets and a video of Da Coach himself inviting you to come.

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“I don’t think anything about what Tony said is earth-shattering,” Ditka said. “I think it’s a fact. [Cutler] came here under uncertain circumstances. The way he got out of Denver was kind of strange. But the kid is a talent.”

But Da Coach, master marketer and of the endorsement deal and holder of the key to the City offered Cutler this fine advice:

“If they win with Jay Cutler and go to the Super Bowl, he will own this city,” he said. “He can have my key.”

It’s actually shocking that anyone associated with the ’85 Bears is willing to share so much as the key to the executive bathroom at Halas Hall.  Those guys have been milking that Super Bowl title for nearly 25 years.  Do you think they want the current Bears team to take the title so they can just ride into the sunset?  Nah, me neither.  Da Orange-hued Ditka offered Jay some more tips to succeeding in the Windy City:

“The worst thing that you could ever do in this city is come in here and be a complainer or a whiner,” Ditka said. “If you do that, you have a problem. So I think if he comes in here and shows that he’s the leader of this football team …

“From what I understand from talking to the people I talk to, he has been a model citizen, and the city has really embraced him.”

“You’ll find out a lot when the pressure’s on,” he said. “We’ll find out once the season starts, when things are either going good or not so good, you find out how people respond to that.”

He’s not, for now…

Brett Favre allegedly, supposedly seemingly will not come out of retirement to join the Vikings.   Can we call off the Favre-watch stakeout of Kiln, Mississippi?  Can ESPN talk about something else?  Stay tuned.

It’s unfortunate that he won’t join the Vikes, but maybe the sideshow can drag out into training camp and provide enough of a distraction to keep the defending NFC North champs off their game?  Any time Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson throws an interception, will they be looking over their shoulder?

In case you were wondering what Jay Cutler thinks about the possibility, don’t worry, Larry Mayer’s got ya covered from his chalk talk: (more…)

The Super Bowl XX winning 1985 Chicago Bears were named the greatest Super Bowl team ever by Fox Sports’ Adrian Hasenmayer.  He says it, so it must be true.

The 1985 Bears encompassed all you could want in a Super Bowl champion — a dominant team that finished the regular season 15-1, smashing defensive records in the process. Plus they had plenty of flavor, as judged by their classic “Super Bowl Shuffle” rap video that became a trend-setter among 1980s sports teams. Throw in wild personalities like Jim McMahon, William “Refrigerator” Perry plus head coach “Iron” Mike Ditka and even defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, and it’s no wonder Chicago couldn’t sustain its invincibility. But for one 1985 season and 46-10 blowout of New England on Super Sunday, no team was ever better.

Check out the rest of the best.   There are some impressive teams on the list, but as we all know,  the ’85 Bears stand alone as the greatest Super Bowl team of all time.

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