THE LONG HALL
‘Seniors’ Covert, Sprinkle become 29th and 30th members of Bears’ organization honored by Pro Football Hall of Fame
The “Welcome, rookie” moment is a rite of passage in the NFL. But Bears offensive tackle Jimbo Covert did some welcoming of his own as a rookie in 1983.
“We used to practice over at [old] Halas Hall, and on that south field, it was hot, and back then we were beatin’ the hell out of each other,” Bears Hall of Fame defensive end Dan Hampton recalled.
“There was a play that I found out later was a tackle trap. They trapped Jim Osborne. Now, Osborne had been in the league 13 years. And I heard him kind of scream during a play, and afterward we were on the sideline, and
I went up to him and said, ‘Are you OK?’ He said, ‘Dude, I’ve been in this league 13 years, and I’ve never been hit like that.’
“And we all kind of looked over at Covert. I used to raise cattle, and . . . he was one of those bulls you look at and say, ‘I ain’t messin’ with him.’ That was Jimbo Covert. He was a guy you didn’t want to mess with.”
That might be the ultimate praise on a team that enjoyed beating the crap out of each other in practice and opponents on Sundays in the glory days of the Mike Ditka era. But after years of waiting for the ultimate NFL recognition following a stellar eight-year career from 1983 to 1990 that was shortened by a back injury, Covert finally achieved football immortality Wednesday when he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Covert joined another former Bears great, defensive end Ed Sprinkle, and former Chicago
Cardinals lineman Duke Slater among 10 seniors (players whose careers ended more than 25 years ago) who will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame in August or September ceremonies in Canton, Ohio, as part of the Centennial Class in conjunction with the celebration of the NFL’s 100th season.
Covert and Sprinkle are the 29th and 30th members of the Bears’ organization to be honored by the Hall of Fame. Covert is the fifth player from the 1985 Super Bowl championship team to make it after running back Walter Payton (1993), linebacker Mike Singletary (1998), Hampton (2002) and defensive end Richard Dent (2011).
The Centennial Class, which also includes coaches Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson and three contributors, was chosen by a “blue-ribbon panel” that included Patriots coach Bill Belichick, former Raiders coach John Madden, former Packers GM Ron Wolf, former Bills/Colts GM Bill Polian and former Cowboys vice president of player personnel Gil Brandt.
Covert was a two-time firstteam All-Pro selection and made the Pro Bowl twice — both honors in 1985 and 1986. He was chosen for the NFL’s “Team of the ’80s’’ by the Hall of Fame committee. Of the 22 first-team selections, he was the only player not in the Hall of Fame.
Sprinkle was a fierce pass rusher — called “the meanest man in football” by Collier’s magazine in 1950 — who played his entire 12-year career with the Bears from 1944 to 1955. He played on the 1946 NFL championship team and was named to the all-decade team for the 1940s. He died in 2014 at 90.
Slater, the first African-American lineman in the NFL, was a seven-time All-Pro who played right tackle for the Cardinals from 1926 to 1931. He was a Cook County circuit-court judge from 1948 until his death at 67 in 1966.