We`re talking Phenomena here, folks, and that`s with a capital P, which rhymes with B, which stands for Bears. Phenomena! As in Certified Cult Heroes. Phenomena! As in Already Legendary Across The Land. They pummeled America`s Team and America embraced them to its collective bosom, and then they ran a prime-time power sweep right through the ratings roof. They are the Kids of the Moment in the National Faceless League, the single biggest reason all three networks are enjoying increased viewership of their NFL games.
And, hey, we`re not talking local Phenomena here, folks, as in just the local U.S. of A. These guys have been the highlight of the NFL`s weekly highlight show in Merrie Olde England. A television crew from the Land of Masterpiece Theatre stopped in Lake Forest to shoot some footage Alistair Cooke will not narrate. They caught the fever in Ireland, too, and that country`s Radio and Television Enterprises went out and produced its own hour special on on the Bears. (What next? Jim McMahon and Steve McMichael for Guinness Stout? Dennis McKinnon for cableknit sweaters?)
So, folks, forget Bill Cosby and his cute little family. They aren`t nearly as much fun to watch as Mike Singletary and his group. Forget that suddenly hot couple that bickers its way through each episode of
”Moonlighting.” Their arguing can`t compare to what you see in one close-up shot of the Bears` bench. Shoot. This team is a week`s worth of television shows offered up on a single Sunday afternoon.
You a violence freak? Let me introduce you to Buddy Ryan`s defense, starring Danimal Hampton and Ming McMichael. You want sex symbols to match the hunks of ”Miami Vice”? Gary, Gary Fencik, c`mon over here a minute, and bring Walter Payton along with you. Some comedy, you say? Just listen to those Junkyard Dogs braying at the moon, or watch His Highness The Fridge carry Sir Walter into the end zone. Mystery? Wait just a second and you`ll see McMahon take off on a magical mystery scramble that has more possible endings than the new ”Clue” movie. Heck, this group even provides its own commercials.
(”Awwww, Fri-i-i-dge.”)
”Obviously, their success is one of the things behind their popularity. But their cast of characters has a lot to do with it, too,” says CBS announcer Pat Summerall, who did three Bear games during the regular season and will be on hand at Soldier Field on Sunday. ”There`s admiration for Payton. The magic of Perry, of course. Mike Ditka has a certain appeal. Certainly McMahon. And then there`s the mystery of the defensive unit no one can figure out how to block. I think the 49ers last year had a degree (of the Bears` popularity), but they didn`t have the characters. I think the Steeler teams in their heyday are probably a better comparison than anyone else. (Mean Joe) Greene. (Franco) Harris. (Rocky) Bleier. That group.”
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”They`re bigger than life. They`re certifiable. They`re not media-created crazies. They`re legitimate,” says Terry O`Neil, executive producer of NFL football for CBS. ”The other thing that occurs to me is that even though they have Walter Payton, probably the greatest running back ever, and McMahon, certainly the most colorful quarterback around, I think most people want to watch their defense. It is like the Steelers in the `70s. You go in assuming they`re going to shut out the other offense. Then there`s the fascination in seeing if they`ll hold `em under 100 yards, under 10 first downs. All you`ve got to do is walk out of your house, talk to the guy in the barber shop, to the guy in the restaurant to know it`s true.”
O`Neil heard from other folks, too, when he was ensconced in his 30th-floor office high above New York City`s Sixth Avenue. At least once a week he got a call from the president of the Bears` Fan Club/Jacksonville, Fla., Branch, and listened to that man threaten to storm his office if he didn`t get to see his favorite team on a regular basis. He received a batch of letters from Virginia, the heart of Redskin territory, pleading with him to pull the
`Skins from the network`s schedule and replace them with the Bears. There were howls of protest from the beaches of San Diego to the woods of Wisconsin when (in most parts of the country) CBS cut from the Bears` rout of the Falcons to show the more tightly contested Washington-Pittsburgh game.
The talks he had and the squawks he heard proved the Bears` popularity to O`Neil, and he spent the second half of the regular season breaking rules and changing plans to telecast them as widely as possible. The first Bears-Lions game was originally going to be seen by only 11 percent of the country; it ended up being viewed by nearly half the U.S. The Atlanta game originally was going to be a regional affair announced by regulars Tim Ryan and Johnny Morris; it ended up being a nearly national presentation announced by superstars Summerall and John Madden. And the final Lion game, which had no bearing on any race, was nevertheless deemed a national telecast. ”People just want to watch the Bears play. They can`t get enough of them,” says O`Neil.
”After the Monday night Green Bay game, we basically threw out the fear of lopsided games and said the Bears were going to be our predominant team no matter who they were playing. The best example was the Atlanta game. Going in the line was 18 or something. We all knew it was going to be pretty lopsided. Normally, you`d never have a network game seen widely that`s that lopsided going in. That`s one rule the Bears really changed this year. We came to believe this year that people wanted to see Chicago even if it was a rout. So we made them our major game even though we had Washington-Pittsburgh at a point where both those teams were still very much alive for the playoffs. Other years, we would have stuck with that. Not this year. It`s Bears. Mania, mania, mania.”
And if you don`t think so, just listen to the testimony of the announcer all Chicago loves to hate, Orenthal James Simpson himself, who wants everyone to know that, yeah, he likes the Bears, and even more, admires Walter Payton. Says Simpson: ”The Bears have brought something refreshing back. Watching Chicago play, you`re watching a team that`s enjoying itself. And they`ve lit it up every time they were on prime time. In Minnesota, McMahon comes in the second half and lights it up. The next time on prime time, the `Frigerator lit it up. And then they go through the roof (against Miami) because the people who casually watch, who look at one, two games a year, tune in to watch the excitement.
”They`re new, fresh, exciting. It`s not Pittsburgh now, or Dallas or Washington or 49ers. It`s the Chicago Bears. Everybody wants to see a new team come up and be dominant. When that happens, everyone likes `em because it lets them think maybe next year their team will be the new one that dominates.”
NFL PLAYOFFS ON TELEVISION
Saturday
Cleveland at Miami, 11:30 a.m., WMAQ-TV (Ch. 5).
Dallas at Los Angeles Rams, 3 p.m., WBBM-TV (Ch. 2).
Sunday
New York Giants at Chicago, 11:30 a.m., WBBM-TV (Ch. 2).
New England at Los Angeles Raiders, 3 p.m., WMAQ-TV (Ch. 5).
Sunday, Jan. 12
Conference championships
At sites of teams with best record. AFC game on WMAQ-TV (Ch. 5), NFC game on WBBM-TV (Ch. 2).
Sunday, Jan. 26
Super Bowl XX at New Orleans
AFC champion vs. NFC champion, 4 p.m., WMAQ-TV (Ch. 5).