New York Giants' Post-Super Bowl Flashback: Bear Clawed

Remember the New York Giants' first Super Bowl win?

When Parcells was thin, Belichick was the quiet defensive coordinator, and Lawerence Taylor's legs were young and strong?

When the Bill Parcell's coached Giants crushed John Elway and the out-manned, out-muscled, out-hit Dan Reeves' Denver Broncos?

The next season, 1987, they opened with a prime-time game. Perhaps one of the most anticipated games in NFL history.

This year, the Giants face the Washington Redskins. But in 1987, pre-parity, the league was much better. The teams were much better. The top teams were much, much better.

Eagerly awaiting the Super Bowl Champion Giants were the previous year's champs, the big, bad, snarling Mike Ditka and the Chicago Bears.

The last time the teams had met was on the Bears' historic '85 Super Bowl run. The Bears had dominated and shut out the Giants 21-0. Giants QB Phil Simms was harassed and smashed all day, particularly by Bear DE Richard Dent, who had perhaps the most dominate defensive game in playoff history, sacking Simms 3.5 times, forcing two fumbles, and collecting seven tackles.

His teammates helped. A rattled Sean Landeta, the Giants' punter, missed the ball while punting in the winds of Soldier Field, and Bears safety Shaun Gayle picked up the rolling ball and ran for a score. 310-pound tackle knocked Giant RB Little Joe Morris from the game with a brutal hit.

Jim McMahon taunted Giants great Lawrence Taylor, who was being handled well by Bears All-Pro tackle Jimbo Covert, with a late-game bootleg.

But this was '87. Taylor was drug free. McMahon was hurt again. Walter Payton legs were a year older. Bears defensive mastermind Buddy Ryan was in Philadelphia. Bill Parcells' and defensive coordinator Bill Belichick were at the top of their games and on friendly terms.

The fall air at Soldier Field was electric with excitement. A players' strike-deadline loomed, but that night, two of the best defenses in NFL history would square off.

Hall of Famers dotted the field, Bears Coach Ditka was already in. LB Lawrence Taylor, LB Harry Carson RB Walter Payton, LB Mike Singletary, and DT Dan Hampton careers would take them there. Someday, Parcells and Belichick will be in Canton also.

But other Hall of Fame-caliber players lined up. Giants LB Carl Banks and Bears Tackle Jimbo Covert would be all-decade '80s players. Bears DE Richard Dent, LB Wilbur Marshal, C Jay Hilgenberg, and S Gary Fencik would all be nominated for the Hall.

On this Monday night, Sept. 14, Giant QB Phil Simms was talking trash to the Bears' defense as the Giants took the field. The Giants had jumped ahead on a Bear turnover, which Giant DB Tom Flynn turned into a three-yard fumble return.

The Bears, behind backup QB Mike Tomczak, had responded with a drive resulting in a Kevin Butler FG.

Now it was Simms turn. Payback time for the playoff thrashing in which he had been sacked six times and completed only 14 of 35 passes.

But the blond-haired QB ran into a Bear buzz saw. The Bears' defenders were barking back at him, telling him to bring it. And the Bears were bringing the blitz. The Bears were blitzing early and often.

Simms was hit on every pass play, as the relentless Chicago pressure flowed over him. RB Joe Morris tried to scoot outside on a key third down and was viciously clobbered by Bears DE Dan Hampton.

The Bears got the ball back and Tomczak, with the great Walter Payton plowing ahead for yards, marched down the field again. The Bears' offensive line was handling the Giants' famed front seven. Tomczak plunged in from the one, and the Bears seized the lead.

The Bears would not look back.

After the Bears' defense dominated the sputtering, Giants' offense in each of their next two drives, Tomczak capitalized. First he fired a  42-yard strike to WR Ron Morris, then a 56-yard pass to a streaking Willie Gault, who out ran the Giants secondary. It was 24-7 and getting ugly.

Bears LBs Otis Wilson and Wilbur Marshall were barking, growling, and howling at Simms and his key threats—All Pro TE Mark Bavaro and RB Joe Morris—who was being badly beaten down on running plays.

Bears defensive linemen Steve "Mongo" McMichael, Dan Hampton, and Richard Dent were viciously teeing off on Simms, knowing the Giants had to throw since they had no chance to run.

Simms went down nine times for 59 yards, threw an INT, and lost a fumble. When he was finally helped from the field, his helmet twisted so badly his ear hole was over his mouth, after a brutal sack by Dent, Bears players began shouting to him.

"Phil! Phil! C'mon back. Come on back for some more. C'mon Phil don't go yet, this party just starting. C'mon Phil come back"

The final insult was a 96-yard punt return by Bears wideout Dennis McKinnon as Soldier Field erupted.

34-19 was the final.

And all Bears fans thought another Super Bowl was there's for the taking. All this and McMahon coming back, too? How could they screw it up? They had just easily dominated the best team in football.

But it would be Mike Tomczak's greatest game as a pro. It would be Coach Ditka's greatest post-Super Bowl win. It would be perhaps the last time the Bears defense showed the sheer dominance that had won them the Super Bowl.

The NFL would go on strike after Week Three. The Giants would stumble to a 6-9 record. Ditka would side with the scab players and forever alienate his team when the strike ended, as Bears leader Dan Hampton described it.

"It's like if your wife cheats on you, you can stay married, but it's never the same."

The Bears lost their edge and the spirit they showed dominating the Super Bowl Champion Giants. 

The Bears made the playoffs but were eliminated for the second-straight year at home by Joe Gibb's Washington Redskins, who would go on to win the Super Bowl.

The great Walter Payton would retire. As would Bears Defensive Captain Gary Fencik. All-Pro linebacker, and at the time the team's best impact player, Wilbur Marshall would be allowed to leave as a free agent to the hated Redskins.

The team's fastest player, WR Willie Gault, would be traded to the Los Angles Raiders. Ditka would alienate Dent and the next year trade McMahon to the San Diego Chargers.

Owner Mike McCaskey's purse strings tightened.

The Bears were done.

But for one brief moment, against the Super Bowl Giants, they showed the world their old, violent Super Bowl fire that thrilled the nation and brutalized Phil Simms while giving his coach, the Tuna, a headache.  

Let's hope tonight's game is half as exciting.