Doc anoints 1985 Bears NFL’s greatest team
Argue all you want about which is the best team in NFL annals. A new documentary is offering up one option: the 1985 Chicago Bears.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame will première ’ 85: The Greatest Team in Football History on Jan. 3. It will then hit theatres on Jan. 29.
The documentary focuses on the dominant Super Bowl XX championship team coached by Mike Ditka, and including a cast of characters as colourful as the coach.
Dan Hampton and Jim McMahon, two stars from that team that went 15-1 and shut out the Rams and Giants in the NFC playoffs before beating the New England Patriots 46-10 in the Super Bowl, will attend the première at the Canton, Ohio, shrine. Afterward, actor Matt Walsh, who narrated the film, will lead a panel discussion with the Bears players, documentary director Scott Prestin, and Hall of Fame executive director and noted historian Joe Horrigan.
The documentary includes interviews with members of the ’85 team, including Hall of Famers Mike Singletary, Hampton and Ditka, plus McMahon, Steve McMichael, Willie Gault, and Otis Wilson, who co-produced the film. Famous Chicagoans such as former president Barack Obama, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Bill Murray, and sports commentators Michael Wilbon and Chris Myers offer their perspectives.
Profiled are Hall of Famer Walter Payton, McMahon, William ‘ The Refrigerator’ Perry and Ditka. ❚ In other NFL news, the head- tohead hit levied by Carolina Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis on Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams last Sunday drew more than a two-game suspension that on appeal was reduced to one.
It caught the attention of a lot of coaches and players around the league, as calls for a safer game ratcheted up yet again. The Packers decried the blind-side block, for which Davis apologized, that occurred during an interception return by the Panthers.
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has an idea. “I think with those you should screen them like a basketball guy instead of hitting them. You can knock the heck out of them even if you don’t hit them in the neck and head area. You can screen them and get the job done, and you know you’re not going to get anybody hurt,” Zimmer said.