Bear Digest

What the 40th Anniversary of Super Bowl XX Means Now for Bears Fans

Analysis: When Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan were carried off the field, no one could have expected a 40-year title drought. But times could be changing.
Gene Chamberlain|
Mike Ditka is raised to the shoulders of Bears players at the Superdome after a 46-10 Bears win over New England on Jan. 26, 1986.
Mike Ditka is raised to the shoulders of Bears players at the Superdome after a 46-10 Bears win over New England on Jan. 26, 1986. | Dick Raphael-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

On this 40th anniversary of this greatest of all days to those Bears fans who vividly recall seeing Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan carried off the field by the greatest NFL team for a single season, it's time to be thankful rather than wistful.

For one, they have this cherished memory, no matter where they saw it or who they saw it with, or whatever state of sobriety they found themselves in as it became fact with the final merciful gun.

Remember, it was a colossal blowout, a game decided by halftime for all intents and purposes. There was far too much time to bring out the heavy stuff and tip a few before the end of that one in honor of all who played during the previous 22 years without getting the chance to do this, such as and not exclusively: Gale Sayers, Dick Butkus, Doug Buffone, Dick Gordon, Jim Osborne, Doug Plank, Wally Chambers, Roland Harper, Mike Phipps, Brian Baschnagel, and even Terry Schmidt and Bob Avellini.

It was only one season, and they did lose that Monday night game in Miami, when they had nothing left to play for until the postseason, and too many were out celebrating on the prior evening. As usual, it also would have been good to have their starting quarterback available to, you know, start.

Buddy Ryan gets a ride from his defense after the 46-10 win over New England.
Buddy Ryan gets a ride from his defense after the 46-10 win over New England. | Tony Tomsic-Imagn Images

Sure, memories of that Bears team always will be tainted by thoughts of what might have been. They were so young, explosive, and dominant, but between the egos of Mike Ditka and Michael McCaskey, critical injuries, and several NFC franchises who handled success better, they never regained such lofty status.

Bears fans of this age can at least say they saw how their team gained that one trophy sitting in the back of the main lobby at Halas Hall by itself, growing lonely.

That's more than Vikings and Lions fans can say.

Gratitude for now

The other thing Bears fans can be thankful about is something they couln't say just last season. They appear so much closer to making that 1985 trophy share space, or even—gasp—force the McCaskeys to buy another case.

They have a young team, one only a win short of the NFC Championship Game, a team led by a coach who proved for four straight seasons, going back to Detroit, that he's on the cutting edge of offensive strategy. In one Bears season, Ben Johnson proved to be something good and better as the leader of a franchise.

More than anything else, they have a quarterback who showed he can handle the most clutch situations, and a team with knowledge and experience of actually doing it with him during one incredibly formative season.

Caleb Williams is an actual talented quarterback, and a completion percentage or contrived analytics can't deprive them of this fact made apparent in seven comeback wins.

The memory of the 1985 season is a flame that will never die thanks to NFL Films.

The promise of what's to come is an enraged flame billowing out of control, stoked by generations of Bears fans too young to remember their coaches carried off the field in New Orleans during an era when they still used the Gatorade vat solely to store beverage for consumption.

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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.