Even if the Bears go on and win the Super Bowl, the events that transpire Sunday will be what we most remember years from now. The fact that it’s Green Bay ensures that.
That’s not unusual. Sometimes heroic moments en route to a world championship are more dramatic than those that go down the night champagne splashes off locker-room walls.
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I always will remember Patrick Kane’s short-handed goal to force overtime in Game 5 in the first round against Nashville more than his overtime game winner that sealed the Stanley Cup in Game 6 at Philadelphia. And I was there.
Most White Sox fans recall Orlando Hernandez getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning in the clincher against Boston in the ALDS more clearly than Jermaine Dye driving in Willie Harris in the decisive game of the 2005 World Series. I was in Houston for that one, too.
How vivid is your memory of Henry Waechter sacking Steve Grogan for a safety in the Bears’ Super Bowl win over New England? Perhaps you know that Reggie Phillips returned an interception for the touchdown, but if you closed your eyes and tried to picture it, could you?
What we remember most are those snapshots that say 1,000 words. Like Wilber Marshall’s fumble return for a touchdown in the NFC Championship game against the Rams 25 years ago.
It was snowing at Soldier Field. The Bears defense dominated all year and made a mere mortal out of Eric Dickerson that day. That image encapsulated the Bears woof woof season.
I was 24 in 1985 and working at WGN-AM 720, which carried the Bears games. What I remember most about the regular season isn’t a “revenge” win over San Francisco (the 49ers beat the Bears in the NFC title game the previous year) or the 44-0 beat down they put on “America’s Team,” the Dallas Cowboys.
What defined the regular season was rookie defensive tackle-turned fullback William Perry steamrolling George Cumby. It wasn’t just the oddity of the Fridge in the backfield, paving the way for Walter Payton.
Cumby played linebacker for Green Bay.
A win Sunday over the favored Packers would provide countless frozen-in-time moments. I can hear the guys on the barstool next to me in 2036:
“Remember when Brian Urlaaacher and Laaance Briggs stuffed dat Green Bay running baaack on fort’n goal?”
“How big was it when Jay Cutler scraaambled for turdy yards ta set up dat game winner from Robbie Gould?”
“I tawht da difference was Julius Peppers knockin’ dat Aaron Rodgers guy on his baaackside, my friend.”
It’s the Packers. And it doesn’t have to make sense that this visceral need for bad things to happen to our neighbors from America’s dairyland means more than anything.
Taking liberties with Mark Sanchez or even Ben Roethlisberger couldn’t be a fraction as satisfying as sending Green Bay home with tails between legs.
I wish I had faith in Lovie Smith’s club to make all this possible, but post-season football is no fairy tale. You see, what’s etched indelibly in my mind from this season is seeing Cutler running for his life.
Green Bay defensive coordinator Dom Capers brings heat and the Bears don’t handle that well. The Bears allowed the most sacks in the league this year while Green Bay was the second best at getting them.
Save some of your hatred for the Packers for the first Sunday in February when Pittsburgh gets ’em. The snapshot from this game will be Clay Matthews and Charles Woodson arriving in the Bears backfield with rude intentions.
Packers 24, Bears 17.