Bear Digest

Are the Chicago Bears headed for a 40-year-old Super Bowl rematch?

Two surprising teams currently lead their respective conferences. Are they bound to meet in Super Bowl LX?
Pete Martuneac|
Dick Raphael-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The 1985 Chicago Bears were, and still are, much more than your average Super Bowl champion. That team was so dominant, so iconic, that their triumph became woven into the very fabric of the NFL. After going 15-1 in the regular season, those Bears rolled through the divisional and conference rounds of the playoffs, holding both the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams to zero points.

In Super Bowl XX, the Bears met the New England Patriots, whom they demolished by a score of 46-10, a fitting tally if ever there was one, considering Chicago owed this championship to its juggernaut "46" defense. Of course, in the decades following this game, these franchises took starkly different paths. The Patriots have since amassed six Super Bowl titles, while the Bears are still pursuing their second Lombardi trophy.

However, exactly 40 years on from this legendary Super Bowl matchup, these teams appear to be on a collision course for a rematch. Two Week 13 upsets launched the Bears to the top of the NFC with a 9-3 record, and the Patriots, winners of ten straight, stand atop the AFC at 11-2.

A Bears-Patriots Super Bowl would make NFL history

While some fanbases are understandably sick of seeing the Patriots in the Super Bowl, this showdown would put electric smiles on the faces of NFL marketing executives for two reasons: Caleb Williams and Drake Maye. Should they meet at the finale of the 2025 NFL playoffs, it would be the first time in NFL history that both starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl were 24 years old or younger. Williams just turned 24 last month, while Maye will still be 23 years old in February, when Super Bowl LX is played.

Many fans and analysts will scoff at the very idea of the Bears getting to the Super Bowl. They may hold the No. 1 seed in the NFC for now, but they still have five games left to play and plenty left to prove. There's still a chance the other shoe drops and the Bears stumble into the postseason on a bad losing streak, so the reasoning goes.

The Bears are legit, and it's time to reorient our perception of them

However, those very same doubters would have laughed if you told them back in August that the Bears would win nine games by Black Friday, including a win over the defending Super Bowl champions. The very idea of the Bears leading their division, let alone the conference, would have been a joke, yet here we are. The Bears and Patriots are both ahead of schedule and playing excellent football.

The ride may soon come to an end for both teams, and they're young enough that their inexperience could quickly sink their playoff runs, but it's time to take them seriously as Super Bowl contenders. They've proven their chops, defeated good teams, and are riding impressive win streaks into Week 14. A Super Bowl XX rematch is very much on the table, and what a rematch it would be.

Caleb William
Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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Pete Martuneac
PETE MARTUNEAC

A former Marine and Purdue Boilermaker, Pete has been covering the Chicago Bears since 2022 as a senior contributor on BearsTalk. He lives with his wife, two kids and loyal dog.

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