Five Worst Trades in Chicago Bears History
2. 1949- The Chicago Bears trade Bobby Layne to the New York Bulldogs for the third overall pick and select Chuck Hunsinger
Everyone knows the Bears have struggled at the QB position. They had a great QB early in the franchise’s history in Sid Luckman, had a pretty good one in the 1980s with Jim McMahon and had another solid QB nowadays with Jay Cutler. Other than that, there hasn’t been much to write home about at that position.
Many people may not realize that the Bears could have had a hall of famer quarterbacking the team in the 1950s. The Bears had several very good teams throughout the 1950s and might have won titles if they had someone better than Ed Brown at quarterback. Brown was a solid pro, especially for the era, but he wasn’t a hall of fame caliber QB like Bobby Layne.
The Bears had Layne for one season But Halas buried him on the depth chart behind Sid Luckman and Johnny Lujack. Luckman was gone a year later, but Layne was annoyed that Halas wanted him to compete and split time with Lujack and wanted out of Chicago.
Halas was as stubborn as they come and didn’t want to work with Layne, so instead he shipped him off to the New York Bulldogs. The Bears did get the third overall pick for Layne but spent it on running back Chuck Hunsinger.
Hunsinger spent three mediocre seasons in Chicago before finding his way to the CFL and finishing his career in football obscurity. After one season in New York, Layne was traded to the Detroit Lions in 1950 where he would establish himself as one of the best in the league, leading Detroit to two NFL titles (and helping them to a third) and finished his career being enshrined in Canton.
The Bears might have survived this atrocious deal if Lujack stayed with the franchise but he quit football after 1953 to coach at Notre Dame after years of squabbling over pennies with Halas.