Hard to Bear It |
A deep dive into the Chicago Bears and the 1986 Super Bowl victory leaves a lot of yellow flags on the field.
I used to go to my accountant’s office in Jerusalem. He’s an American CPA raised in Chicago who is a graduate of the University of Illinois. Walking into his office I would find myself face-to-face with a massive poster of William “The Refrigerator” Perry as well as an equally large picture of old Comiskey Park, while its replacement was under construction. Visiting him was a chance to go back to Chicago without booking a flight. We have reminisced over many Chicago sports successes and failures.
Recently, my CPA sent me Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football by Rich Cohen. As I still have my 1986 limited-edition Carson-Pirie-Scott stuffed Chicago Bear with sweater and ski hat, I obviously had to read this book. The author is wee bit younger that I am but otherwise attended the same high school, lived in a neighboring suburb and went through the ups and mostly downs of being a Chicago Bears fan. While the book dwells a great deal on the Bears of the Mike Ditka-Buddy Ryan era, there is an outstanding introduction to the genesis of modern football in America. The college and professional football worlds of nearly a century ago had nothing to do with each other. One Columbia coach lamented that when his college players had reached their peak in football knowledge and capability, they had nowhere to go. Why? Because the pro or semi-pro leagues were populated by factory workers who used their time after work to pound each other in something that nominally resembles football today. Cohen goes through the founding of the league and the conversion of the Decatur Staleys (named after a starch maker) into the Chicago Bears. The Bears started their lives in Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. The author notes that the fledgling teams often took the names........