Tenure deals with the franchise
Many great players proud to proclaim they’re Bears for Life
EVEN AS A SAINT, KREUTZ WAS STILL A BEAR AT HEART
Olin Kreutz’s “Bear for Life” credentials are impeccable.
He played 13 seasons with the Bears. He played in 202 games — more than any position player in franchise history other than Steve McMichael. He made six Pro Bowls. He played in the Super Bowl.
He was a rock on the offensive line who missed one game in his last 10 seasons with the Bears — in 2002, when he had an appendectomy and played the next week. In 2004, he had elbow surgery during the bye week and never missed a game. A native of Honolulu, he once turned down more money in Miami as a free agent to stay in Chicago — playing for the Bears meant that much to him. He was good enough, tough enough and mean enough to play for the ’85 Bears. George Halas would have loved him.
And he was just as much of a Bear when he wasn’t a Bear. Unable to come to contract terms during training camp in 2011, Kreutz reluctantly signed with the New Orleans Saints, who played the Bears in Week 2 that season.
The Saints won 30-13 at the Superdome, but Kreutz took little joy in beating his former team. While other ex-Bears have reveled in that occasion — Alshon Jeffery and Robbie Gould the most prominent recent examples — Kreutz was almost chagrined.
“[With] the level of respect I have for that whole team, it’s not like I take great [pride] in watching them lose or that I needed to prove a point to them,” he said that day. “Was it a normal game? No. It was like going against your family. It’s not easy. There wasn’t any more satisfaction other than the fact that we need the win.”
It was like he was still a Bear. Defensive tackle Anthony Adams said Kreutz was “talking to us and coaching us up — everything he always does. ‘Hey, man, you’re heavy in your stance.’ It was like playing against your dad.”
Kreutz as the melancholy former Bear wasn’t just a storyline. Four weeks later, he retired, saying he had lost his passion for the game. He had a $2 million contract. He was in the best offense of his life — Drew Brees and the Saints ended up first in the NFL in yards and second in points that season. And he was on a team headed to 13-3 and the playoffs. But less than three months after leaving the Bears, football just wasn’t the same.
HAMPTON WAS ONE OF LEADERS ON TEAM REPLETE WITH QUINTESSENTIAL BEARS
On a championship team loaded with heart-and-soul guys, Dan Hampton had a special niche as a leader on the ’85 Bears.
The fourth overall pick of the 1979 draft, Hampton played 12 grueling seasons with the Bears. He underwent 10 knee surgeries — five on each knee. He made the Pro Bowl at two positions — defensive tackle and defensive end. He came up big in big games, including Super Bowl XX. He was the fourth-most tenured player on the ’85 team, behind Mike Hartenstine, Walter Payton and Gary Fencik. Once the Bears turned the corner in 1983 under Mike Ditka, they were 80-25 with Hampton, 8-15 without him.
Hampton was big, tough and outspoken, but he also had a practicality about him. He declined to participate in ‘‘The Super Bowl Shuffle’’ because he thought it was presumptuous, which it was. When he was clearly at the end of the line and looking for one more contract in 1990, he signed a temporary contract to allow him to report to training camp on time. Then he signed a one-year incentive-laden deal that paid him only if he played. He ended up playing in 16 games, including two in the playoffs.
From Hampton and Payton to Reggie Phillips and Henry Waechter, any Bear who had anything to do with the ’85 team is a Bear for Life. But this team was particularly Bearcentric. Hampton is one of 11 key players who played his entire career with the Bears — along with Payton, Fencik, Mike Singletary, Keith Van Horne, Matt Suhey, Mark Bortz, Dennis Gentry, Jimbo Covert, Ron Rivera and Leslie Frazier.
And that doesn’t include nine others who played one season or less elsewhere — including Otis Wilson (one game with the Raiders), Tom Thayer (three games with the Dolphins), Dennis McKinnon (nine games with the Cowboys), Hartenstine (five games with the Vikings) and Jim Morrissey (eight games with the Packers). They all are Bears for Life.
A MAD DOCTOR GOT REVENGE AFTER BEARS LOST TO REDSKINS
Dr. Danny Fortmann retired on top, or so it seemed. Fortmann was a five-time All-Pro guard who had won two NFL titles with the Bears when he decided to pursue a medical career at 26 after the 1942 season.
A Colgate graduate at 20 when he was drafted by the Bears in the ninth (and last) round of the first NFL Draft in 1936, Fortmann had graduated from the University of Chicago medical school and was a resident physician at Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.
But one thing stuck with him. After winning titles in 1940 and 1941, the unbeaten Bears were upset losers to the Redskins in the 1942 championship game. So as the 1943 season approached, Fortmann agreed to return — but only if he could continue his medical duties in Pittsburgh and come to Chicago for the games.
Even then it was an odd setup, but Fortmann was good enough to make it work. Playing only on Sundays, he was All-Pro again in 1943 and went out a winner — the Bears went 8-1-1 and beat the Redskins 41-21 at Wrigley Field for their third NFL title in four seasons.
“This one last season was to make amends for our sour finish last year,” Fortmann said. “That was a bitter pill to swallow in Washington. It won’t be so hard to retire now.”
Fortmann eventually moved to Los Angeles, became chief of staff at St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank and the team physician for the Rams when they moved to Los Angeles. A Bear for his entire eight-year career, he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1965.