'85 Chicago Bears: The Biggest Disappointment in Sports History

The Bears dominating Super Bowl win was brutally magnificent. More Super Bowl wins for this great team seemed sure. The Bears had one of the youngest teams in the league. Stocked with Pro Bowlers and seasoned with veteran stars, the future seemed unlimited and the Super Bowl wins boundless.

The Bears would surely roar into the rarefied realm of the seventies' Steelers and sixties' Green Bay Packers.

But then the Bears went bust. No more Super Bowl appearances. Only a few playoff victories. Suddenly, the narrow window of opportunity slammed shut. It was over. The stars were gone. Da Coach was done. The future: once so bright, had suddenly become another long, dark Bear night.

The Bears flamed out. Da Coach burned out.

What went wrong? Why did the greatest team ever assembled for one season so quickly burn out? Why did the Bears disappoint so badly?

When did the Super Bowl Shuffle become the Bad News Bears' Swan Song? Why did they break Bears fans' hearts?

The foremost answer was failure at the quarterback position. Jim McMahon, one of the most football-smart quarterbacks ever, according to Steve Young, was great when healthy. Which, sadly, was seldom. His reckless style of play motivated the offense, but it devastated his body.

Against the defending Super Bowl Champion Los Angles Raiders in 1984, in one of the more brutal games in modern NFL history, McMahon suffered a lacerated kidney, ending his season and the Bears' Super Bowl dreams. Their season ended in a shutout in the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco Forty-Niners and Joe Montana.

Steve Fuller against Joe Montana was the glaring difference between the clubs in the title game. But did the Bears learn from their defeat and stock the quarterback position? No. Unlike their main rivals, the Washington Redskins and San Francisco Forty-Niners, they refused to make a move on any available USFL quarterbacks or develop a quality backup.

Steve Fuller, Mike Tomczak, and a young Doug Flutie were just not good enough, even with a great defense, to beat the underrated defenses of the '80's era Forty-Niner's and Redskins. Not to mention the great New York Giants' defense.

In 1986, McMahon's season was ended after he was cruelly spiked onto his already injured shoulder by Green Bay Packer Charlie "Too Mean" Martin. The Bears' title hopes were destroyed, despite still having the best defense in the league.

After perhaps the dirtiest play in recent NFL history, Bears linebacker Otis Wilson was asked about Martins' blatant, away and long after the play, spike of McMahon. Wilson said that he didn't feel like punching Martin, but rather shooting him with the .357 Magnum he kept in his car outside the stadium.

McMahon's throwing shoulder would never be the same, and neither would the Bears offense.

The Bears were left with second-year backup Mike Tomczak and veteran Steve Fuller. And a still great, but not as aggressive, defense under Buddy Ryan's vanilla replacement, Bill Tobin.

Coach Ditka, in a startling move, signed and inserted untested Doug Flutie into the lineup. Despite being 14-2, the Bears were bitterly bantering about Ditka's sudden move as they marched into the playoffs behind an inept offense.

They quickly marched out, having been soundly beaten at Soldier Field 27-13 by Joe Gibb's Washington Redskins. Flutie played poorly, as did the rest of the Bears offense. Unheralded 'Skin quarterback Jay Schroeder put up 27 points on the suddenly soft 46-defense.

The dynasty was on hold.

The next year, the Bears looked ferocious again, whipping the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants badly in their Monday night opener.

Shortly after that resounding victory, the strike came and the Bears were a team torn apart. Ditka blasted the players, losing many of them for good, and bragged up the replacements. When the Bears came back, they were not a happy bunch, and again the offense lacked punch.

Once again, the Washington Redskins beat the Bears in Chicago in the first round of the playoffs. The Bears had jumped to a 17-0 lead, but collapsed later on. The collapse was fueled by one of the greatest plays in NFL history.

Redskins' Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Greene's punt return for a touchdown sparked the Redskins to victory. Greene leaped over Bear player Cap Boso, and juked Ron Riveria—all while suffering torn rib cartilage—on the way to the end zone.

Losing after being up 17-0 is something a Buddy-Ryan defense would never have done. But when Ryan flew away to the Philadelphia Eagles, his spark left the defense.

Bill Tobin was a play-it-safe and play-it-soft, bend-but-don't-break type of coordinator. The defense lacked a bit of the killer instinct ingrained in the famed 46. The loss of Buddy Ryan was another key to the Bears' long hibernation.

The Bears would never be the same after their second straight home loss to the Redskins in the playoffs. The great Walter Payton and defensive captain Gary Fencik retired. Their fastest player, wide receiver Willie Gault, was traded to the Raiders, thereby removing the only offensive component capable of stretching a defense.

On defense, their biggest impact player, save perhaps All-Pro Richard Dent, linebacker Wilbur Marshall left as a free agent to the rival Redskins. The Bears defense would never have the same attacking, intimidating potential without Wilbur Marshall. It would never again be as vicious.

The Bears deemed Wilbur and Willie not worth the money, and thus deprived the team of its top two impact players. Two players at the prime of their careers.

The aging Bears made one more run in 1988. In the playoffs, they beat Buddy Ryan and the Philadelphia Eagles in the famed Fog Bowl.

Then, like in 1984, the Bears ran into a superior San Francisco Forty-Niners team. Despite playing at Soldier Field in the cold, the Bears were soundly beaten, 28-3, by Bill Walsh's Forty-Niners.

In the offseason, McMahon would be traded to the San Diego Chargers. Linebacker Otis Wilson would be cut. Soon to be Hall of Fame defensive tackle Dan Hampton, the heart of the team, would retire. The Bears were tamed, left to think of what might have been.

The often dreamed of dynasty was done.

Bill Walsh once said that starting tough, but not all that athletically talented football players, will leave you with a bunch of tough guys watching his fast guys run past them. Ditka seemed doomed, with his tough guy, smashmouth football obsession, to watch the 'Niners and 'Skins run past his players.  

The tough but not as talented approach worked fine against lesser teams, but when playoff time came, against superior coaches with equal or better talent, the Bears were overmatched. Particularly with tough AND talented players, like Gault, Wilson, and Marshall.

Their replacements, while equipped with plenty of toughness, could not match the talent and coaching of the NFC's other top teams.

Others, like Payton and Fencik, just got old. And some, like McMahon, got injured. While other teams mined the USFL for depth and talent, the Bears stood still. Steve Young and Jim Kelly both could have been brought in at little cost.

So in the end, the Bears, despite that glittering Super Bowl season, were a great disappointment. Perhaps the greatest disappointment in football history.

Poor coaching, a less aggressive defensive approach, terrible personnel decisions, bad luck, and a lack of quality quarterback-depth doomed the team. The strike and infighting on the team didn't help either.

And, of course, Bill Walsh, Joe Montana, Joe Gibbs, Darrell Green, and deep-pocketed owners Jack Kent Cooke and Eddie DeBartolo had something to do with it.