No Chicago team has ever captured the city’s imagination quite like the 1985 Bears. Coached by Mike Ditka and anchored by a Buddy Ryan defense that terrorized quarterbacks all season, the Bears rolled to a 15-1 regular-season record, their only blemish a Monday night loss to the Miami Dolphins. Along the way, a group of players recorded “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” a gloriously goofy rap video released before the playoffs even began, featuring Walter Payton, Jim McMahon, William “Refrigerator” Perry, and the rest of the roster dancing and boasting that they were “not here to start no trouble.” It became a cultural phenomenon, reaching the Billboard Hot 100 and later earning a Grammy nomination.
The Bears backed up the bravado. They shut out both playoff opponents, the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams, by a combined score of 45-0, becoming the first team in NFL history to post consecutive shutouts in a single postseason. That set up Super Bowl XX at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on January 26, 1986, against a New England Patriots team that had upset three straight playoff opponents on the road to get there.
The game was never close. New England’s first play from scrimmage actually resulted in a fumble recovered by Chicago, and though the Patriots kicked an early field goal for a 3-0 lead, it was the last time all night they held any advantage. The Bears’ defense, led by the “46” scheme and swarming linemen like Dan Hampton and Steve McMichael, sacked Patriots quarterbacks Tony Eason and Steve Grogan a Super Bowl-record seven times and held New England to a mere seven rushing yards for the entire game, still a Super Bowl low. Jim McMahon punched in two rushing touchdowns, and in one of the most memorable moments of the night, the 335-pound defensive tackle William “The Fridge” Perry lined up in the backfield and bulldozed his way into the end zone, delighting the crowd and embodying the team’s swagger. Chicago cruised to a 46-10 victory, a margin that set a Super Bowl scoring record at the time.
Defensive end Richard Dent, who racked up 1.5 sacks and forced two fumbles, was named Super Bowl MVP, a rare honor for a defensive player, fitting for a unit many still regard as the greatest in NFL history. One notable footnote lingers to this day: Walter Payton, the franchise’s all-time great running back and the driving force behind the team for a decade, never got into the end zone in the game, a decision Ditka later admitted he regretted.
More than three decades later, the ’85 Bears remain the gold standard for Chicago football, and Super Bowl XX stands as the franchise’s only Lombardi Trophy. The blend of dominant defense, colorful personalities, and that unforgettable music video turned one season into a permanent piece of the city’s identity, proof that in Chicago, greatness and swagger can go hand in hand.
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