A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
By Rich Trzupek
Down on Da Bears
Are you over it yet? It�s been a couple of weeks. You should be. If you have not yet stopped tearing your Bears gear to shreds, lighting ritual bonfires made from Rex Grossman posters and crying yourself to sleep, it may be time to seek professional help.
We lost one. It happens. All of the usual words of comfort apply. At least we made it to the Super Bowl, while everyone else was sitting at home. The George Halas trophy now resides with George Halas�s team. It was a helluva ride. Etc.
We are somewhat spoiled, as far as Super Bowls go. Not that the Bears have gotten to play in that many (curse you Dave Wannstadt), but because the one that we did win was the equivalent of the First Gulf War: a devastating victory, that left the enemy�devastated, with smoking wreckage strewn across the battlefield long after the contest (if you can call it that) was over.
And that, to quote Sean Connery, in �The Untouchables� is the �Chicago Way.� They put one of ours in the hospital, we put one of theirs in the morgue. Or, to apply the principal to the �85 Bears: the Patriots stop the Bears for no gain, the Bears blitz like 15 guys and Tony Eason ends up with a football wedged in his ear.
God it was a beautiful thing.
We loved �85 (and still do) because, as Chicagoans, we always value complete destruction of an opponent for higher than a finesse, last-minute victory. Michael Jordan hitting that last-second jumper over Craig �Oh crap, how in the hell did he do that?� Ehlo is a classic Chicago sports moment.
But it is not a moment that will ever compete, in the fan�s heart, with memories of Butkus blowing up NFL runningbacks in the �60s, or of Richard Dent flying around end and depositing an opposing quarterback�s head six inches deep in the Soldier Field turf. Jordan was cool. Butkus and Dent were friggin� awesome.
These Bears were not the �85 squad reborn. They could not be. The game has changed, for one. There are now rules against blitzing guys off the bench and assaulting wide receivers. Spread offenses, quick drops and pansy, wide-receiver friendly rules have turned the game into one where the 46 defense simply can not work�no matter how much talent one has.
Moreover, that kind of domination happens once in a lifetime. OK, maybe four times in a lifetime, if you happened to be a Steelers fan in the �70s. But that�s IT.
As the �06 Bears approached Super Bowl XLI, we alternately heard a lot about the �85 squad and heard about how people should just stop talking about �85 already.
The right attitude, as usual, lies somewhere in the middle. These Bears, and any futures Bears, should not be held to the standard of �85. It�s just not fair. It�s like asking Jesus for an encore after he raised Lazarus from the dead.
But, on the other hand, we should always treasure that memory of a time when, for one shining moment, our team was the biggest and baddest set of mother-lovers to ever set foot upon a gridiron. If we live vicariously through our sports teams, and we do, then �85 was the height of that fantasy life. Who wants to forget about that? It�s like forgetting about the first time you made love. Unless of course your first time was like mine, during which...oh, never mind.
And we do have some moments from this season that should become part of our shared, goofy, sports memory.
Brian Urlacher�s performance in the fourth quarter of the Arizona game was the stuff of legends. Jordan could take over a game in his day, but that was one man against five on a relatively small basketball court. Not saying it wasn�t amazing to watch, nor that it didn�t require an incredible amount of talent, but just compare those performances to...
One defender, the best athlete on the field and therefore the one guy the opposition knew it had to contain, roaming over 5,000 square yards of turf, flying around the field, slowing up in exactly the right spot time and time again. For one incredible quarter of football, Urlacher played like a man possessed. He willed a team to victory against seemingly insurmountable odds. If the Bears didn�t win another game in �06, that quarter would have made the whole season worth it.
And then were was Devon Hester running wild. He was alternately a coronary or a highlight film in the making, but who�s complaining? Mark Anderson brought back memories of the immortal Dent and Thomas Jones showed flashes of the determined, slashing running that is a big part of the Chicago football tradition as well.
We did not get a �Super Bowl Shuffle 2006� out of the deal, which is kind of a shame. Yet, on the other hand, once you�ve seen Steve Fuller dance, anyone else is bound to be a disappointment.
Winning a Super Bowl would have been fabulous. Not �85, by any means, but pretty cool. Getting there wasn�t bad at all. Calls for Lovie�s head or to burn Rex in effigy ought to belayed, at least for a bit. They did, after all, get us to a spot that we�goofy fans that we are�haven�t enjoyed in 21 years. Who knows, maybe they can do what the �85 team couldn�t: get back to big game next year. Not saying that they will, mind you. But they deserve the chance.
And if they let us down in 0-7, let the bonfires begin!
