Bear Digest

Current Bears organization unworthy of hosting 1985 team at opener

Analysis: There will be a celebration of the1985 Bears' 40th anniversary but the team's ownership has proven it is unworthy of hosting such an event.
Gene Chamberlain|
Mike Ditka is hoisted after the Bears won Super Bowl XX. It's been all downhill since then for the organization.
Mike Ditka is hoisted after the Bears won Super Bowl XX. It's been all downhill since then for the organization. | Dick Raphael-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

There will be assorted members on hand from the greatest team for a single season in NFL history Monday night at Soldier Field, as they celebrate the 40th anniversary of Chicago's only Super Bowl win.

At least they have one, unlike their opponents Monday night or the Detroit Lions, who haven't even been to one.

So much for the chest beating.

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Of course, the Bears have a line of merchandise coming out now to honor the 40th anniversary of the 18-1 1985 Bears, too. No sense letting this kind of profit-taking opportunity go to waste.

Oh, the Miami Dolphins will claim the greatest title as the only unbeaten team, but that 1972 season was the year they moved the hash marks and the change to the sport didn't really kick in for several years until after coaches started finding new ways to take advantage of the passing game. It was a different era, with the football moving slower than 13 years later.

In a dream matchup, the 1985 Bears would have destroyed that unbeaten Dolphins team, a group that played only two opponents with winning (8-6) records and 12 with losing records. They barely won a Super Bowl over a bunch of old men. They didn't destroy three opponents 91-10 in the postseason the way the 1985 Bears did.

But this is not merely another attempt to praise a team from 40 years ago, one that none of us who saw will ever forget, anyway. There's sufficient praise in Chicago every day for that team over the last 39 years—far too much of it.

Rather, it's to say they never even should have had a day to honor the 1985 Bears at Soldier Field this year, and it has nothing to do with those players who are well deserving of the accolades. The Bears organization should have been too embarrassed to ask them to come.

It shouldn't have been held because it reminds everyone how for 40 years since that magical season the organization has lived off what those players accomplished. The McCaskey ownership hasn't put a product on the field that lives up to the standard those men set.

That's a long period of misery.

Sure, they got to a Super Bowl in 2006. No doubt there will be a celebration next year of 20 years since that magical season when they were second best.

In the meantime:

  • 11 playoff berths and a 6-12 record in postseason
  • Only seven seasons with playoff berths since they fired the coach of that 1985 team, Mike Ditka, and a 4-7 postseason record in them
  • A record 49 games below .500 since they fired Ditka (225-274)
  • Six straight seasons without a winning record
  • Eight seasons in the last 11 with double-digit defeats
  • 14 straight seasons without a playoff win
  • Three straight last-place finishes
  • Seven last-place finishes in 11 years
  • Five wins in the last 33 games against their biggest rivals, the Green Bay Packers
  • Two wins in their last 10 with the Vikings
  • A 76-120 record since they fired their last Super Bowl qualifying coach, Lovie Smith

    • —a .387 winning percentage

  • Four times in the top 10 in scoring since they fired Ditka in 1993
  • Three times in the top 10 in offensive yards gained since Ditka's 1993 firing, the last time in 2013
  • Five times in the top half of the league in offensive yards gained since Ditka's firing
  • A record of 15-36 since their current GM took over

There are a lot more of them but you get the point.

The Chicago Bears have failed to live up to the 1985 team's legacy to such a degree that they are doing an injustice to those players by inviting them to Soldier Field to kick off another season. They should have been embarrassed to even given out the invite.

Sure, there is optimism for Ben Johnson to turn things around. There always has been with each new coach, even John Fox and Matt Eberflus.

Then the losing begins.

It's not fair to Johnson to anticipate it, nor is it fair to suffering Bears fans to build up their hope that things are finally changing.

It must be proven on the field first. Until they start to see a sign something actually has changed, then the 1985 Bears probably should have refused to accept the invitation and simply said: "Show us some winning first and then maybe we'll show up later in the season."

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.