Forty-six-10. That’s what I remember.
The scoreboard.
The feeling I had was relief that it was over because it takes so much out of you leading up to that game.
I had such a magnificent group of guys. I was with some of them the other night. We’re going to be together a little more this year because of the anniversary. They’re the neatest guys.
They captured the imagination of everybody. One reason was, I never reined them in. I let them go. I let their personalities show. I let their character show. You are what you are as people. We all have emotions. Show them. Have fun.
The greatest, on and off the field.(1) The best-conditioned athlete I’ve ever been around. The biggest practical joker I’ve ever been around. A leader by example. The one guy on our team that everybody on our team admired.
He hadn’t practiced all week. (2) I didn’t think he could throw the ball. He started driving me crazy, wanting to play.
So, we get behind, he’s still going nuts, and after the half I put him in. And I knew what was going to happen. I assumed that they thought he couldn’t throw the ball, because that’s what I thought. So, the first play, he read the defense, he knew it was a blitz, he had man-to-man outside, he audibles to the fly route, Willie(3) gets it, and bang.
He isn’t in the game five seconds, and touchdown. How dumb do I look?
Then he throws three more in a period of about five minutes.
We had a lot of fun with him.(4) And the players loved it because “Is he going to run this week? Is he going to catch? Is he going to pass?” We had a little bit of everything. We made a circus out of it. We made the kid famous.
He(5) was going to attack you. He was going to make you break down somewhere if you couldn’t protect it. When you do it, you’re man-to-man all the time. I used to look at film and see guys that would be open everywhere, but the quarterback was laying on the ground.
My dad was really strict. I was the oldest child and my dad took most of the frustration out on me. He was in the Marines.
I was always the kid who got in trouble. For some reason, it just found me. Little things. So, I got whipped a lot.
My mom is great to this day. I was her favorite because I was the firstborn. I always tell my brothers and sister that, anyway.
I was a much better baseball player.
They came back to me and asked me if I’d get involved, and I said I would.(6) They asked, “Do you want a position?” I said, “No, I don’t want a position. I don’t want to walk around and tell anybody what to do. Let me observe for a while, and then if I have a suggestion, I’ll give it to you.”
About 80 percent of the games will be on some type of TV this year. This team here has been in the playoffs the last four years and nobody knows it.
This is what football was when I started playing. We didn’t make any money. We went out and played. These guys play offense, defense, special teams.
I have Super Bowl rings from Dallas. I have league championship rings. I have Hall of Fame rings. This(7) means something to me because I had a vision and I watched it come true. What Jim Finks put in place, what Jerry(8) and I put in place, and Bill Tobin, it was phenomenal.
The best thing I ever did was draft Jim Covert at left tackle. I think he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.
At the end of my career, the wizard(9) came in and he made a lot of the calls, and did just terrible drafting.
I think I found out that as many people don’t like you as like you. I don’t think there’s a more genuine person in the world than me. Now, whether people understand that or not, I don’t care.
What did I do wrong? They won two championships in this town in 50 years, and I played on one and coached the other one. I’ll go somewhere and apologize, but you’ll have to tell me where and who to.
In the locker room in 1984 after we got [beat] by the 49ers, I told those guys, “You come back next year and you take care of the 49ers, and I’ll take care of the 49ers’ coach.”
We want to have a big dinner for the ’85 Super Bowl team and in memory of Walter Payton, and the majority of the proceeds will go to Misericordia, the Walter Payton Foundation, the After School Matters program. I think we can get a couple thousand people out there.
1: Walter Payton.
2: Quarterback Jim McMahon before the Thursday night game against Minnesota.
3: Wideout Willie Gault.
4: William “The Refrigerator” Perry.
5: Defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan.
6: Buying into the Rush of the Arena Football League.
7: His Bears Super Bowl ring.
8: Former GM Jerry Vainisi.
9: Michael McCaskey
